Re: What criteria do you have for your own or others' languages?

Hi!

Jörg Rhiemeier writes:
>...
> First of all, I think that any conlang ought to be measured against the
> purpose or design goals set by the creator.
The same for me.

>...
> A fictional ethnic language, on the other hand, should *not* be overly
> regular and simplistic, but resemble a natlang, and obey well-established
> linguistic universals.
>...
Well, this is not necessary if the creator defines the society
differently.  E.g. Vulcans would probably not have an irregular
language.  So the design of the society were the language is to be
spoken might override the default goals for conlang design that you
give here.

>...
> What unsettles me is any claim made by a conlanger that his language
> was "ideal" or "optimal".  One should be very, very careful with such
> absolutes.
The same for me.

My personal taste is twofold, and might me manyfold when I get
interested in other goals.

I personally like/dislike:

Wrt. phonology:
I
  - like a,i,u
  - like uvulars, pharyngeals, clicks, consonant clusters
  - dislike palatals, postalveolars, retroflexes
  - dislike plain voiced plosives

Wrt. engelang grammar:
I
  - like very simple structure
  - like one open lexican class
  - like unambiguous syntax and morphology
  - like a good balance between default underspecification and
    possible precision of semantics

Wrt. artlang grammar:
I
  - like alien, unexpected solutions

Wrt. diacronical conlangs' grammar:
I
  - like grand master plans
  - like the feeling of familiarity with sparks of unexpected
    unfamiliarity, i.e., Germanic and Romance language are most
    interesting to me

**Henrik

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