Hallo conlangers!

On Wednesday 25 May 2011 09:13:19, R A Brown wrote:

> On 24/05/2011 23:14, Padraic Brown wrote:
> > --- On Sun, 5/22/11, R A Brown<[log in to unmask]>  wrote:
> [snip]
> 
> >> I agree. [Jan's] slide showing the numbers 1 to 10 in
> >> Proto-Slavic, Old Church Slavic and various Slav-conlangs
> >> clearly show they could reasonably be regarded as
> >> approximations of the same language.  But a similar
> >> list of the more well-known 'Euroclones' would not be so
> >> similar.  I don't, in fact, go along with the notion
> >> that " 'Euroclone' auxlangs are really varieties of the same
> >> language", hence the smiley - but I do find them rather
> >> boring.
> > 
> > Boring or otherwise, perhaps, if not "varieties of the same language",
> > Euroclones could more accurately be described (decried?) as "variations
> > on the same theme" or "different expressions of the same idea".
> 
> Variations on the same them, I think, describes them well.

Indeed.  Someone (I have forgotten who) once remarked that
most of the major IALs - Esperanto, Ido, Occidental, Novial,
Interlingua - are similar enough to be mutually intelligible
to some degree.  I don't know how much truth there is in it,
but they are certainly very similar to each other - variations
on the same theme.

> > That is,
> > unlike natural dialects diverging from a single language, they are
> > constructed languages converging on a single idea. The single idea and
> > same theme are, of course, the Ideal Interlanguage.
> 
> Yeah, but that single idea surely applies to all would-be
> global auxiliaries, not just Euroclones.

Certainly.

>       The author of Babm
> looks forward to a time when "the simplest but most complete
> universal language will be absolutely necessary."  But by no
> stretch of the imagination can Babm be described as a Euroclone.
> 
> Try this sentence:
> "V pajio ci hatj, lrid cga coig pegayx pe bamb ak cop pbagt."
> 
> The single idea, surely, is that the 'Ideal Interlanguage'
> should be based on languages of (western) Europe.  But this
> is getting us into AUXLANG territory, so maybe we should
> drop the subject.

Babm is certainly not a Euroclone in the strict sense - it
is not instantly recognizable to someone familiar with a
Romance language or with Esperanto!  Sometimes, though,
the word "Euroclone" is used with the wider meaning 'conlang
with a grammatical structure that conforms to Standard Average
European patterns', and I don't know whether Babm conforms
to them.

But yes, we are getting dangerously close to AUXLANG territory
here.
 
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