Texts shaping language

On Sat, 27 Feb 1999, dunn patrick w wrote:

> Thanks.  I intend to.  I've noticed that translating texts alien to the
> culture of the Trolls -- say, the Babel text, which besides being
> cumbersome is just plain silly to a Troll -- tends to shape the language
> in undesirable ways.  Writing original works in the language, at least
> at first, allows the grammar and vocabulary to grow somewhat naturally.
That goes for any language, I think, even natural ones. The Dutch
language was shaped in part by the seventeenth-century Bible
translation. I've never tried to translate any Bible text into
Valdyan, mostly for that reason. I *do* write original texts, and
they shape the language the way it wants to go, even if they tend to
leave strange gaps - I noticed when translating the "great freedom
for all the children" text that I had all the words except "freedom".
Obviously I hadn't written anything political before. Words to do
with food, drink and cooking, on the other hand, are abundant because
I've written some recipes.

   Irina

irina@rempt.xs4all.nl
     http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/frontpage.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)