Re: Creating a metaconlang; anyone want to join?

> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Henry
> > Seriously though, maybe a look at Navaho code talk could give
some
> > ideas.
>
> My understanding is that the "code-talkers" just
> translated the English messages into Navaho and talked
> normally to each other, relying on the obscurity
> and difficulty of Navaho to stymie the Japanese
> (or Germans?) who were listening in.  Any obscure
> natlang or a priori conlang could work the same way;
> preferably some language about which nothing has
> been published in your enemy's language.
There's much more than that to it.  It was sort of a code on top of
a code, with the use of a little-known language like Navaho only
making it more difficult for the enemy to decipher.

	> The Navajo Code Talker's Dictionary

    	When a Navajo code talker received a message, what he heard
was a string of
	seemingly unrelated Navajo words. The code talker first had
to translate
	each Navajo word into its English equivalent. Then he used
only the first
	letter of the English equivalent in spelling an English
word. Thus, the
	Navajo words "wol-la-chee" (ant), "be-la-sana" (apple) and
"tse-nill" (axe)
	all stood for the letter "a." One way to say the word "Navy"
in Navajo code
	would be "tsah (needle) wol-la-chee (ant) ah-keh-di- glini
(victor) tsah-
	ah-dzoh (yucca)."

	Most letters had more than one Navajo word representing
them. Not all words
	had to be spelled out letter by letter. The developers of
the original code
	assigned Navajo words to represent about 450 frequently used
military terms
	that did not exist in the Navajo language. Several examples:
"besh- lo"
	(iron fish) meant "submarine," "dah-he- tih-hi"
(hummingbird) meant
	"fighter plane" and "debeh-li-zine" (black street) meant
"squad." <

	http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm