Hallo!

On Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:25:23 -0400, John Vertical wrote:

> My problem probably is that I appreciate a naturalistic sound (ie. with a
> diachronical justification for everything) but an engelangish grammar, and
> yet I don't really feel like uniting the two in a single project… I've
> thought up one solution, and that involves wrapping any engelangs as being a
> posteriori within a conworld, but there really should be an easier way out.

I don't know whether there is an easier way out.  Naturalistic
languages and engelangs are two entirely different things which are
virtually impossible to reconcile.  I have projects of both kinds,
but I keep them separate.  A conlang which is naturalistic in some
respects and engelangy in others is neither fish nor flesh in my
opinion.  I have seen such bastards (many auxlangs are of that sort,
but also some artlangs), and I never liked them.  Of course, you can
build an a posteriori engelang which draws from a naturalistic artlang
the same way you can build one that draws from a natlang, but such an
a posteriori engelang will still be a compromise of sorts (for instance,
how do you achieve self-segregation with an a posteriori vocabulary?).
No, naturalistic artlangs and engelangs are so vastly different in
style that you better keep them separate.

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