Re: Language Evolution

[Juan Parra <juparra@GEL.ULAVAL.CA>]

Colin,

Thank you for answering. First of all, I sent the
message to Lojban list, because I have had trouble
to be understood in other lists like sci.lang or
soc.culture.esperanto. I read the Lojban features,
and I found some its characteristics fit very well
my point, except that I meant to apply them to any
existing language like english.

Second, when I said static, I really meant major
language changes regarding communication problems.

My idea resides in the assumption that any existing
language could be improve to be better understood,
less complicated, more efficient if some structural
reforms are applied to it.

Let say we take some of Lojban features to modify
the english language, so we have:

* Unambiguous grammar
* Phonetic spelling
* rules without exception

Now, it's possible in the real world to modify the language
like this? What would be the major problem? Is this the
reason why languages like Lojban are emerging, because it's
easier to create a new language than to change an existing
one? If Lojban is accepted, then will people tend to
complicate it? Is this a vicious circle...


Regards,

Juan Parra
Universite Laval
Quebec