Re: Why grammar is so complex a subject

On 12/29/05, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> wrote:
> On 12/28/05, Chris Peters <beta_leonis@...> wrote:
> > > > Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> writes:
>
> > > > >...  Therefore conlangs should not be "designed", they should be
> > > > > "used into existence." ...
>
> > ... Has anybody on this list attempted this ... by teaching their conlangs
> > to their children?  That seems an obvious way to test the "speakability" of
> > a conlang, if a child is able to be raised bilingual in a conlang plus a
> > natlang.
>
> This seems like a bad idea, simply
> to use one's children as experimental
> subjects to test whether a language design
> is workable or complete.
Agreed. This is why I've started off teaching Elomi mainly to the
family beagle. She has learned "aya!" already, which is an utterance
of consternation, alarm, or excitement, and pronounces it quite well.
She has also coined a new word herself, "awuuuuuuu", which seems to
mean 'lonesome'.

---larry

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