Kevin Smith | Re: Freezing the basic grammar

• Autor: Kevin Smith (“kevinbsmith”)
• Tema: Re: Freezing the basic grammar
• Data: 2006-04-29 14:17
• Mesaje: 2119 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

--- In LinguaFrancaNova@yahoogroups.com, "activeselective" wrote:
> Second, I see some use the 'argument' of attracting new users in
> order to have this "declaration of stability". Nonsense. "Stability"
> is not a road sign which will attract new users,

I disagree, in a way.

The way to gain new users, especially users who are not already in the
conlang community, is to have a compelling reason to learn a new
language. The most compelling reason I can think of would be that
there would be material available to read. Lots of material, and
unique material that is not available in another language that this
person already knows.

So, to gain lots of users, you must convince someone to create lots of
material. Those authors will be reluctant to write large amounts of
text if they believe the language will change in ways that their work
will become unreadable in the future.

Stability is important to authors, who are the key to getting readers.
There are likely to be hundreds or thousands or serious readers for
each serious writer.

I would like to see LFN drop some of it's few remaining affixes, but
otherwise I support some kind of public statement that the grammar is
not expected to change significantly.

> If you want a road sign, I think we need one like: "Veni e leje nos
> Isola Tesoro e Prinse Poca" and "Leje la novas en la creol de la
> mundo". They suggest TO USE and TO EXPERIENCE the language.

I still believe that "normal" people (not conlangers) do not want to
learn (or "experience") a new language. And they won't learn a new
language just to read a book that's already available in other
languages that they know. Especially if this new language is hard to
learn, either because of difficult grammar, or because they have to
memorize (or look up) thousands of words.

That is why I still believe that the key for a new IAL to surpass
Esperanto is that it must be extremely easy to learn to read. Part of
that is being able to memorize or print out a tiny word list
(500-1000) and with it to be able to read almost any non-technical
material.

Just my opinions.

Kevin