Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: Nick Rezmerski <rezm0001@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: World Language?
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Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 21:08:26 GMT
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kelley@ede.sanders.lockheed.com (Sean V. Kelley) wrote:
>
> Joseph Bartlo (jbartlo@ouchem.chem.oakland.edu) wrote:
> |This is coming from someone who only knows English (and FORTRAN:) very
> |well; but is curious.  Is anyone aware of a functional language that
> |would be excellent as a "world language"?  By excellent, I mean ....
> 
> 
> D'oooohhhh..any bets on how long it takes the 
> *sp*r*nt* fanatics^H^H^H^H advocates to reply?
> 
> 
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Sen V. Kelley               ________    __o   B'aite liom fin bheith ar 
> Lockheed Sanders, Inc.         _____   _`\<,_     thaoibh mhala shlibhe,
> kelley@ede.sanders.lockheed.com   ___ (_)/ (_)       Agus  cailn gaelach
> <std. disclaimer>                                      a bheith 'mo chomhair


From the description Mr. Bartlow gave, I'd say Lojban sounds closer
to the mark than Esperanto.  The logical clarity is probably a great
aid in translation, although I'm not very familiar with Lojban, so
I have no opinion about its suitability to international communication.
Of course, there really aren't any objective criteria that would make 
it (or any other language) the *best* world language...

I think a perfectly logical language would be one that only allows
one way to express a given concept; any change in the phrase or sentence
would reflect a difference in meaning.  Would the phonemes/morphemes
have to correspond one-to-one with the semantemes?

And would people be able to stand it?

  - Nick@Nite (Nicholas J. Rezmerski)
    rezm0001@gold.tc.umn.edu - University of Minnesota
    Opinions are clearly mine, not the University of Minnesota's
    (So don't tell them what I said!)
