Re: If you were to design a language, how many vowels and consonants would you use?
- From: "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:19:34 -0500
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:10:09 -0800 (PST), "Jens S. Larsen"
<jens_s_larsen@xxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:f82d2a4e-7871-498a-b8d3-b838051dd534@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
in sci.lang:
Ross Clark:
"Jens S. Larsen":
When is a continuum the same language and when is it not?
This is a well known unanswerable.
The existence of real-life synchronic continua between, say,
Amsterdam and Vienna, or Paris and Rome, does not imply that
Dutch and German are the same language, or French and Italian.
The fact is that small differences can cumulate into differences
large enough that understanding is no longer possible.
Some people find the lack of a clear-cut criterion for "language/
dialect" disturbing. But to say "All languages are really the same
language" does not seem to me like a solution.
If we have no objective means of telling one language
apart from another, what other options are there?
Recognize that useful categories can have fuzzy boundaries.
Your insistence on dichotomies is artificial.
[...]
Someone may then think of (invent) a way of using such
abilities which points in the direction of language.
Natural selection subsequently favours humans who can
make the most effective use of this new invention. In
the later stages, every particular language is the
result of thousands of accumulated inventions
by different speakers over the centuries.
Do you think this linguistic survival of the fittest is
still taking place?
Who knows?
*Sigh*. I'm close to giving up.
By all means; it would be a distinct improvement.
Doesn't the term "uniformitarianism" tell you anything?
No. Terms by themselves don't. (And yes, I do know what it
means.)
What consequences does that have on your views on
language maintainment and revival?
Some people have suggested that the big languages that are
taking over the world are doing so on the basis of superior
intrinsic qualities, but I see very little evidence for this.
How do you prefer to look at it, then? If the differences
between different languages are not intrinsic qualities,
why do we need to posit more than one?
Non sequitur. Come back when you've figured out what Ross
actually said.
.
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