Half baked idea...

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

>Date:         Mon, 21 Mar 1994 18:12:31 GMT
>From: Matthew Faupel <matthew%CPDAPO.TELE.NOKIA.FI@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>

>Given the apparent success of Klingon, how about selling Paramount Studios
>on the idea that if they want a totally logical language for their Vulcans,
>they need look no further than Lojban?

Heh.  Well, at least in human experience it doesn't seem to hold all that
true that "logical" cultures have logical languages.  Mostly because you
simply don't notice your own language's irregularities.  I recently heard
a well-educated person on WELSH-L say that in the expression "penblwydd
hapus i chwi" the older form "chwi" is used and not "i chi" (as used all
over the place) "because it sounds better".  Yes, but only to a native
speaker.  I used to think that the Hebrew "ner" pluralized as "nerot"
(feminine paradigm) instead of the masculine paradigm "*nerim" even tho
it's masculine because "nerot sounds silly".  Everything makes endless
sense, if that's what you're used to.  It takes a lot of doing to notice
that your language is illogical, and then even more to transition over to a
constructed one that is (I really doubt a perfectly regular language is
likely to evolve by itself and stay regular for long).

>Just a thought...

For some reason, I always felt the Vulcans would be more at home with
Volap"uk.  It's odd-sounding (odder than Lojban, to my ear), has gazillions
of conjugations that only a Vulcan could love... lots of consonants... I
dunno, it just works for me.


>Matthew

~mark