[conlang_learners] shortlist

[Jim Henry]

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 2:42 PM, Arthaey Angosii<arthaey at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Jim Henry<jimhenry1973 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> We should probably annotate the wiki page to say which conlangs we
>> have their creator's permission to use and which ones' creators still
>> need to be contacted, etc.  I'll start on that now.
>
> I noticed that the shortlist wiki page
> (http://wiki.frath.net/Learners_shortlist) now has annotations about
> the type of conlang, including "exo - nonhuman language." The "exo"
> presumably is short for "exotic"; it currently describes only Frith
> and Kēlen.

Hmm... I don't recall offhand any discussion of the origin of the term
"exolang", but I personally associate it with terms like "exoplanet"
more than "exotic".

A search of my mail archives for "exolang" finds several messages
where people define it as referring to languages that are nonhuman in
terms of violating human language universals (e.g. Fith), or are meant
to feel nonhuman even if they don't violate such universals (e.g.
Klingon).   I reckon a conlang that violates human phonological
universals vis-a-vis a nonhuman vocal tract, but not human grammatical
universals, would also qualify, though I don't know offhand of any
examples (maybe Don Boozer's Dritok? but I don't remember anything
about its grammar offhand).

In the "Conlang terminology" article on the Conlang Wikia I defined
"exolang" as a language spoken by fictional nonhumans, especially if
it violates human language universals.   Does anyone want to improve
on or add to that?

> So it's not really "exotic" in that sense, but it DOES have a
> conculture... Maybe we could add "cult" for languages with an
> associated conculture that impacts the language?

Maybe so, although "cult" seems like an unfortunate abbreviation.
"Artlang" almost but not quite implies "having a conculture"; that is
it's a strong statistical implication, but an artlang needn't have a
conculture by definition.   I'd suggest "fict" for "fictional setting"
as an abbreviation for anotating our list.

-- 
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/