Paul Bartlett | Re: [LFN] Re: La letera H / The letter H

• Autor: Paul Bartlett (“bartlett22183”)
• Tema: Re: [LFN] Re: La letera H / The letter H
• Data: 2008-12-12 22:50
• Mesaje: 2982 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

On Fri, 12 Dec 2008, simon.franova wrote (excerpted for brevity):

>> i'm only new to LFN, but in general i reckon changes other
>> than those serving to significantly improve a created
>> language are not a good idea.
>
> I agree. We don't want to change things for change's sake.
> There has to be a really good reason.

Yes, this in general is a good idea.  Some auxiliary language projects
never really get past the project stage because the advocates (even
primary authors) cannot stop forever tinkering.  At the risk of blowing
my own horn, I might suggest my essay "Thoughts on IAL Success" at
http://www.panix.com/~bartlett/thoughts.html .  Sooner or later
tinkering has to stop with regard to structure (vocabulary is another
matter, to be dealt with on its own terms) and the using begin.

>> [...]

> LFN certainly has very few rules of grammar, and I've been
> trying to tighten up the way they're defined.

Lingua Franca Nova certainly has a grammar.  A language with no grammar
is not a language.  Many people confuse "grammar" with inflectional
morphology.  LFN has only a small inflectional morphology (noun plural
and a few verb inflections), so that much of its grammar is in the
matter of syntax, in which it largely follows that of west European
languages, especially English.

> LFN also tries to eliminate redundant vocabulary. For
> example, I've just suggested that we don't need "aumenta"
> (to increase) because the idea can be adequately just as
> well by "crese" (to grow).

This seems to me to be reasonable.  In LFN's early days, the vocabulary
was modest.  Then it seemed to grow like weeds.  If LFN is intended as
a simple, easy to learn auxiliary language, it needs to avoid the
luxuriant weediness of vocabulary that English has.

> But you will find quite a large number of technical words
> in the dictionary: medical terms, scientific jargon, and
> culture-specific concepts such as "haicu" and "zagruta".
> [trim]

In any auxlang design, there is always the issue of unassimiliated
foreign words, especially proper nouns, technical terminology, and
cultural-specific terms.  This becomes a problem even (perhaps
especially) in writing.  For example, many (most?) English language
newspapers in the USA do not print foreign proper names, even those
written in some form of the Latin alphabet, with correct diacritical
marks.  (This seems to be a prejudice especially of English speakers.)
When some of us see such names and know the correct foreign
orthography, it seems odd at best, and at times downright misleading.
My own suggestion is that in writing proper names, LFN should allow use
of the otherwise-unused letters of the Latin alphabet and even
diacritical marks.  It remains to be resolved how such words should be
dealt with in speech.

--
Paul Bartlett