Kevin Smith | Plants and animals (was: Around 500 very basic words)

• Autor: Kevin Smith (“kevinbsmith”)
• Tema: Plants and animals (was: Around 500 very basic words)
• Data: 2002-09-17 00:25
• Mesaje: 89 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

On Mon, 2002-09-16 at 15:34, europidgin wrote:
> --- In europidgin@y..., Kevin Smith <yahoogroups@q...> wrote:
> > It is impossible to include all the animals and plants as words in a
> > core vocabulary. But if you include some and not others, you introduce
> > extreme cultural bias. How would you decide which species to keep, and
> > which to exclude?
>
> You are absolutly right. But it is a little difficult to avoid
> common animals.

Common in which region(s) and culture(s)?

> A pidgin language is perfect when people travel and it's
> always nice to know if the meat you are about to eat is
> from a dog or a cow.

But what if it is a deer. Or buffalo. Or Rhino. Or armadillo. I know my
position is extreme, but once you start including certain animals, where
do you stop? Why is your cow more important than someone's yak or camel?

One IAL value that I feel strongly about is cultural neutrality. For
you, is it very valuable, not very important, or irrelevant?

Kevin