Newsgroups: sci.lang,sci.lang.artificial
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!goldenapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news.dfci.harvard.edu!camelot.ccs.neu.edu!nntp.neu.edu!news.eecs.umich.edu!news.radio.cz!newsbastard.radio.cz!news.radio.cz!CESspool!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!europa.clark.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!not-for-mail
From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Guosa, an African conlang
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ellis-nfs.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <E7KK62.7y3@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: The University of Chicago
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 22:37:13 GMT
Lines: 25

Some time ago, in a book entitled _Issues in anthropology_ by I.V.O. Modo
(Uyo, Nigeria : Dorand, 1994), I came across mention of a Nigerian conlang
called "Guosa"--more than a mention, actually; there's an actual appendix
on it.  Apparently, it is the brainchild of a man named Igbineweka who
invented it in 1965 and presented the version summarised in Modo's book at
an anthropological conference (NASA) held at the University of Ilorin in
December, 1987.  That year supposedly also so the publication of the first
volume of a Guosa dictionary.

The vocabularly is drawn from at 23 different Nigerian languages (incl.
English) according to loose rules (e.g. nouns referring to "visible
objects" from Hausa and other northern languages; abstract nouns and
verbs from Igbo and Yoruba).  The grammar is similarly heterogenous
although Guosa, like most Nigerian languages, is tonal and SVO.

Has anyone else ever heard of this conlang?  Is it getting any support
from the government or the general public?  I was fascinated because it's
one of the few conlangs I've ever seen created by someone whose native
tongue was not Indo-European.


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
