cgboeree | Re: [LFN] parolas nova
Hi, Paul.
It has always been expected that LFN's vocabulary would grow. As I am
sure you know, creoles have many thousands of words, and make use of
their "parent" language for additional vocabulary when they address
technical issues (science, technology, law, etc., etc.).
ls, and so on. As many as possible of the new words will be derived
from original words, in combination, with affixes, in phrases. But a
lily is a lily. If we call it "white flower" or such, what do we call
all the other white flowers? What about lilies that aren't white? We
need the word lily, and that will apply to many other things as well.
LFN has a basic vocabulary of about 2500 words. Like natural languages,
there is some partial redundancy in that basic vocabulary, and there
will be concepts that are difficult to express. But the 2500 will serve
the learner well.
Contrary to some people's opinion, a pidgin is not sufficient to serve
as a full language. The name europidgin was part humor and part
reference to some of the inspirations for LFN. I have listened to
people claim that the original Lingua Franca could communicate anything,
and even that it was wonderfully international. LF was a pidgin with
very limited usefulness. And its vocabulary was mostly Italian. LFN is
a lot more.
LFN has a phonemic spelling; it has a very simple, regular, and
isolating grammar; it has a basic vocabulary fairly recognizable to
westerners without being any more difficult for non-westerners to
learn. It is, in this regard, a little bit better than Esperanto or
Interlingua (as well as earlier romance projects such as Interlingue, or
later copies such as Romanova). If it garners interest, that's great.
If not, perhaps it will make a good case for having some other
international language. If not even that, it has been an enjoyable project.
George
Paul O. BARTLETT wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Oct 2004, cgboeree wrote:
>
> > Parolas nova:
> >
> > [...]
>
> How large is the LFN vocabulary going to grow? I remember the
> short-lived Europijin project, which was supposed to have a simple
> vocabulary, but it was rolled back into LFN. Now it seems that LFN
> just gets bigger and bigger and less and less pidgin-like. It is
> becoming just one more Romance language. We already have at least
> ten Romance languages that I can think of (depending on who counts
> what). Why do we need one more if that's all the LFN is becoming?
>
> --
> Paul Bartlett
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