Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!udel!gatech!swrinde!pipex!bt!btnet!peernews.demon.co.uk!storcomp.demon.co.uk!philip
Subject: Re: EuroLang: I was wrong
References: <1995Apr10.123523.16494@guvax> <797617510snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <1995Apr12.031745.64773@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Reply-To: philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.27
Lines: 68
X-Posting-Host: storcomp.demon.co.uk
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 03:18:27 +0000
Message-ID: <797829507snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk>
Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk

In article <1995Apr12.031745.64773@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
           czervic@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu "Christopher M. A. Zervic" writes:
> Phil Hunt antau~nelonge skribis en sci.lang:
> 
> : solid-aquo = ice
> 
>  Well say goodbye to recognizability
> 
> English = Ice      French = Glaci
> Spanish = Hielo   Italian = Ghiaccio

(Some of these seem to be wrong, also you've missed out German)

Consider:

English     water    solid     ice
German      Wasser   fest      Eis
French      eau      solide    glace
Italian     acqua    solido    gelato
Spanish     agua     firme     hielo

Eurolang    aquo     solida    solid-aquo
Esperanto   akvo     solida    glacio

If EL borrowed a word for ice, it would only be recognisable in 2 of
its source languages (although some have other words starting with glac-,
eg English "glacier" IMO this would be hard to recognise). EL's borrowing
rules state that a borrowed word should exist is 3 out of the 5 source
languages.

"aquo" is quite similar to the Italian and Spanish, also the other 3 langs
all have lots of words starting with aqu- meaning something to do with
water.

"solida" is recognisable in 3 of the 5 langs.

So whereas "glaco" or "gelato" would probably be recognised by speakers
of 2 out of the 5 langs, "solid-aquo" would be recognised by speakers of
3 out of the 5.

Of course, these are just my guesstimates; actual tests on a large number
of people might give different results.
 
> Even if you don't, you're going to run into the same problem that Basic
> English did. Wasn't there a translation of Winston Churchill, "blood, tears
> and sweat" translated like "blood, eye-water and body-water"?

In EL: "sang, eye-aquo, et corpo-aquo".

> I dont remember
> exactly, but it was just as whacked. And basic English has 850 words, a full
> 350 over eurolang.

EL is still under development. It's probably got about 600 roots now.
 
> Perhaps it's time for sci.lang.constructed, tied
> to the conlang mailing list?

I suggested that a few months ago. Most of the conlangers thought it was 
a bad idea.

-- 
Phil Hunt....philip@storcomp.demon.co.uk
