I will soon be putting up a webpage for a new project that I am working on,
called Project Optima.  Ever since i abandoned my Novial reform project
about two years ago, i have been looking around, collecting information,
ideas and inspiration for a new system with an isolating structure.
However, Optima will not primarily be an interlinguistic project, but rather
a linguistic one (though drawing on interlinguistics to some extent).

My interest in the best forms of IAL has led me gradually to an even deeper
interest in the question, what is the optimal form of human language
generally.  The sources of ideas that i have discovered have tended to
converge on a single basic answer to this question.  The aim of Project
Optima will be to bring together the various strands into a coherent
proposal for an optimal form of language.

I wont go far into specifics here, but i will just mention the principal
sources of inspiration for the project.  First, i believe that implicit in
the writings of Jespersen is his conception of the ideal form of language.
This is a product of his theory of efficiency in linguistic change, ie. his
optimistic view of language evolution.  From an interlinguistic point of
view, we can see this conception reflected in the languages he had a part in
creating: Ido and Novial; and there are numerous connections between his
general linguistic ideas and his interlinguistic proposals.

The other main source is creolistics.  I have become interested in the
notion of the creole grammar prototype and the work of Bickerton in
particular.  Despite my misgivings about any innatist theory, i do think
that the similarities amongst creoles is a fact in need of an explanation,
and that that explanation must have something to do with "fitness for
purpose".

Optima is not an interlinguistic project, but part of the motivation for it
is interlinguistic, and accordingly one corollary i will draw from it will
be that the form of language i arrive at is the best model for an IAL.  I
will then put some flesh on the bones by furnishing the model with a limited
vocabulary designed for international use.

I will repeat that this is not a project to invent an IAL.  Its success will
not be judged by whether its lexicon is ever finished, or whether it ever
attracts any speakers.  I will be satisfied if it manages to make an
interesting and original, and probably controversial statement about
language in general.

Kordiale, James Chandler
[log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5037

"In principle, then, every child must 'have /M/ available', whether he's
ever heard it or not.  One could view this either as 'bold speculation' or
an unforgivable confusion of children and linguists." - Roger Lass,
'Phonology'

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