From pycyn@aol.com Sat Jun 03 08:04:04 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 21991 invoked from network); 3 Jun 2000 15:04:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by m1.onelist.org with QMQP; 3 Jun 2000 15:04:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO imo14.mx.aol.com) (152.163.225.4) by mta3 with SMTP; 3 Jun 2000 15:04:04 -0000 Received: from Pycyn@aol.com by imo14.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v27.9.) id a.a2.5327fbb (2617) for ; Sat, 3 Jun 2000 11:04:00 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 11:04:00 EDT Subject: Re: [lojban] Why constructed languages? To: lojban@egroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 41 From: pycyn@aol.com In a message dated 00-06-03 09:48:24 EDT, aulun wrote: << I'd be interested in hearing your opinions. E.g., was Lojban/Loglan inventor's idea similar to Zamenhof's? (Z.'s 'Esperanto' was the *Hope* getting people(s) united in freedom, peace and 'understanding'. >> Nope! He originally (and to the end, officially) designed the language as a tool for testing the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (roughly that certain features of the language you speak determine/limit/affect the view of the world you inhabit). This early got hooked up with computerites in one way or another: I proposed using Loglan as an interlingua for machine translation in 1961 and I may not have been the first, others have sugested Loglans for spoken computer programming languages at various levels , still other have suggested it as an auxiliary language for special projects where lack of ambiguity is desirable along with the possibility for normal conversation (patent law got the most attention recently). I don't off-hand know anyone who (publicly) advocates a Loglan for an Esperantoish role across the board. And, while some people might think that talking a logical language and one without built-in cultural biases would make for a less hostile world, no one has (publicly) claimed this sort of result -- rational discussion instead of fiery rhetoric at the peace table, for example -- would surely flow from adopting a Loglan for general or diplomatic use.