Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Languages in the EC
Message-ID: <D3yLIM.4s@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <elnaD3LH82.77v@netcom.com> <D3n6uL.78A@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <x297j+2.padrote@delphi.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 22:08:45 GMT
Lines: 42

In article <x297j+2.padrote@delphi.com> John <padrote@delphi.com> writes:
>In the past it was common for people to believe that their own particular
>language was the richest, most expressive, and most perfect tongue known
>to man, and all other forms of speech were horrible and barbaric. I've seen
>such paeans written to English, Greek, and Spanish, and I'm sure they exist
>for most of the other languages of the world.

I've seen them written, and heard them spoken, to French, Russian
and Bulgarian.  (Though I'm not so sure that most other languages
have received similar treatment.)

>Nowadays, knowing what we know about language, we can laugh at things
>like that. No one seriously believes their language is inherently
>"better" than any other, except for extreme bigots and Esperantists.

Oops.  Esperantists?

Until I got to this point, I thought that `their [own] [particular]
language' was being used in the sense of `their native language'.
But in the case of a conlang with hardly any native speakers we're
dealing with an entirely different sort of belief.  There's a big
difference between one's attitudes towards what one has been born into
and one's attitudes towards what one chooses.

Can we can compile a set of features that we consider desirable in a
language?  Let's assume that we can (I'm not proposing that we do it
here and now, so leave those `f' keys alone).

Does it take a bigot to state that his native language possesses more
of those features than any other language in existence, merely because
it happens to be his native language?  You bet it does.

But if the criteria are known, then it is certainly possible to construct
a language so that it will meet them better than any other, and if that
has been done, then the people who have *chosen* to take interest in
that language are right to make such a statement.

-- 
`I'm sendin a flood tae pit an end tae it aw.  But dinny worry yersel, Noah.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk)    (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
