Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA16854 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 30 Apr 2002 12:37:49 +0100 Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 07:32:01 -0400 Subject: Re: future language Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <004f01c1f031$97862820$856c4518@no.shawcable.net> Message-Id: <E3DD3DA1-5C2D-11D6-80EF-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.481) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tuesday, April 30, 2002, at 06:27 , Douglas P. Wilson wrote:
> [from von Humbolt]- languages [are] cultural
> content habitually and unconsciously inserted in an intermingled way
> The true universal language, (and what phrase could be nuttier than
> that?),
> if it exists, is not something to be invented but something to be
> discovered
As the missionary says in 'At Play in the Fields of the Lord' "In a
hundred years or so, we'll all be brown."
As we co-mingle and co-habit and co-operate, if we don't co-opt it all
first, it is, culturally cohesive, that we'll co-manage language to the
pidgin of a commonly shared tongue.
The experiment of esperanto has failed- a pocket of speakers exist, (it
is the shakers of linguistics), but, as you say, it is not designed by
the patterns and motives of culture.
But it is not only pride that stands in the way.
- Wade
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 30 2002 - 13:13:24 BST