On 16 Jun 99, at 16:34, dunn patrick w wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Jun 1999, Jim Henry wrote:

> > This reminds me: in re-reading the old conlang archives (1991-
> > 1993) I found an intriguing message about a challenge to create the
> > most expressive isolating language with only 20 words.  Would
> > anyone care to try this in the list now?  (Perhaps we should wait till
> > the translation relay is over.)
>
> Oh, absolutely!  Sign me up.  What are the rules?  Must it be completely
> isolating?

OK, I'm re-posting Richard Kennaway's 1991 message to this very
list.  He got it from a source even older... read on.... a few more of
my comments after his message.



From: Richard Kennaway CMP RA <[log in to unmask]
anglia.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 91 19:59:32 BST
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ticato?

I recently remembered an article I read more than twenty years
ago.  The
magazine Science Journal (you won't have heard of it; it only lasted
a
few years before merging with New Scientist) had a monthly
column by
Edward de Bono on lateral thinking.  Each month he would set a
problem,
and the readers' solutions would be discussed in a later issue.

One of the problems he set was of relevance to conlang: design a
language with no more than 20 words.

To my surprise, I found that the library here has a complete set of
SJ,
so here's the problem as he stated it:


"It has become fashionable to be impressive through being
unintelligible.
Does efficiency in communication involve extending the means of
communication by adding new words or does it involve making
better use of
words already available?  There does come a time when existing
words
prove too cumbersome to describe a new concept and a new word
is
necessary.  At other times an apparently complex concept can be
simplified by clever use of familiar words.

"Suppose your vocabulary was to be limited to 20 unalterable
words.
These words would have to suffice for ordinary day to day living, not
for
technological communication.  They could not be supplemented by
facial
expression, tone, gesture, or sign language.  Nor is picture material
allowed but simple indicative pointing is allowed.

"The words do not have to exist at present.  You can invent any
words
with which you would like to communicate particular meanings.
The words
could be used separately or in any sequential manner.  What are
your 20?"


Would any conlang-ers like to attempt the exercise?  He didn't
mention
grammar - feel free to develop anything in the spirit of the exercise.
Note that the words are "unalterable" - no inflections.  "Solutions"
which involve coding tricks, such as using the twenty words as
letters to spell out the real words, are right out.


The word I used as the subject of this message is from one of the
languages which readers submitted.  I won't explain it, as the
concept it
expresses seems to me so fundamental to this problem that it
would
influence everyone's solutions if I did.

--
Richard Kennaway          SYS, University of East Anglia, Norwich,
U.K.
Internet:  [log in to unmask]            uucp:  ...mcsun!ukc!uea-
sys!jrk

I've read through the old archives I downloaded up to mid -1993,
and it appears that either there was no further discussion, or those
messages didn't get archived.  (Though lots of meta-discussion
about whether to go to a newsgroup, whether to split into artlang
and auxlang groups, etc. DID get archived.  Oh well.)

I'm proposing now a ... not exactly contest, but whatever it is we do
when we do these text translations & relays, etc.  (Maybe that
should be one of the concepts lexicalized in one of our 20-word
languages.)  Anyway, I'm proposing that anyone who's interested
post to the list a description of a language fitting the above
description.   As full or terse as you like, but I'd like to see some
grammatical rules, the entire lexicon, and one or more sample
texts.

I'm also posting a (slightly silly) first draft of my own entry.

Jim Henry III
[log in to unmask]
http://www.pobox.com/~jim.henry/gzb/gzb.htm
*gjax zaxnq-box baxm-box goq.