Re: Slang

On 7/6/06, Michael Adams <abrigon@...> wrote:
> Esperanto, how much has it been influenced by the Natlang
> speakers, who learn the AuxLang/Conlang called Esperanto.
That's a good question.

I'm told that {Kiel vi fartas?} "How do you do?" is not as popular as
it used to be due to the number of native English speakers who learned
Esperanto and were uncomfortable using a root "fart-" in such a
commonly-used phrase.

I'm sure there are other natlang influences even in what's considered
"good" Esperanto.

> Then those who speak it as somethng close to a NATLANG?
Also a good question.

> How much as Klingon for example, or Quenya/Sindarian, changed
> cause of those who speak it, changing things?
I think with some languages, it depends on the amount of authority or
control that the inventor (or governing board, or language authority,
or whatever) of the language has.

For Klingon, many speakers (I would venture to say most of those who
are anywhere near fluent) live under the fiction that this is a real
language about which we know a little. They, therefore, speak within
the boundaries of what is known, and tend not to experiment much --
just as it would be natural to them not to invent, say, Spanish slang
or new bits of Indonesian grammar when learning a natlang. New words
which Marc Okrand coins will be accepted; new words which others coin
generally not. People tend to be cautious with neologisms.

I'm not sure what the status is with Tolklangs -- how much those
languages are "controlled" by anyone, or how much respect the speakers
have for the state of the language in which they received it.

I think control was one issue over the TLI Loglan/Lojban split -- with
Lojban, there's not so much control, and many feel free to invent new
vocabulary items (often not defining them very rigorously). Also, new
vocabulary items seldom have more than two places in their place
structure, unlike the (closed set of) root words called "gismu", which
have up to five (well, a couple can have more since they use an
open-ended hierarchy.)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>