[lojban] How to test Sapir Whorf

["la_okus" <xeubie@hotmail.com>]

This topic may have been covered before, so please direct me to 
it if you remember any. I read some brief discussion on how 
lojbanists actually expect to test sapir whorf scientifically, but the 
transcripts I was reading were from ten years ago. What are the 
latest plans, if any?

So far all I can say is that speakers from a wide variety of 
cultures need to be collected into a single area with suitable 
extended-period living quarters. From there they would go 
through complete lojban immersion until they were fluent. 
Somebody mentioned a test that would be taken before and then 
after this multi-year experiment in hopes of detecting a change, 
but I can't be sure exactly what the nature of the test would be. 
Another option is to test discretely, when they don't know they're 
being tested.

This type of testing requires vigorous scientific consideration -- 
any loophole could ruin years of hard work and thousands of 
dollars of spending. A second option is to leave Sapir Whorf on a 
subjective basis; you learn the language, discover specific 
examples where lojban is much easier and more expressive, 
and leave it at that.

Similar to the second option is to raise children in an 
environment where english and lojban are spoken equally. If it is 
true that bilingual speakers in such an environment will choose 
the language most conventient for their needs, this may be 
grounds for observing Sapir Whorf effects. Bilingual speakers 
today may already experience them, but it is my hope that they 
will be more apparent when one of the languages is Lojban.

mu'omi'e .okus.



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