When it comes to pronouns English and also German has ‘we’ which can mean a lot of things. Me+You Me+Others (you not included) Me+Others + Maybe you Me+ Others and/or you (the default english you) Me+You+Others
You can even further distinguish between how many others are included. Láadan has: lazh = we: pronoun: 1st person: several: beloved len = we: pronoun: 1st person: many: neutral lezh = we: pronoun: 1st person, several, neutral lin = we: pronoun, 1st person, many, honored lhelezh = we: pronoun, 1st person, several, despised lizh = we: pronoun, 1st person, several, honored lhelen = we: pronoun, 1st person, many, despised lan = we: pronoun: 1st person: many: beloved
I personally don’t like the neutral/beloved/despised distinction but I think the several/many distinction could be useful and it’s worth thinking about integrating it.
Having those different shades of ‘we’ prevents confusion where the other person things you meant a different shade than they you did mean.
I think that a new language that provides a much better ability to express shades of meaning by being better at expressing many different things, can provide a real advantage over the existing language and that’s then a reason for people to learn it.
I personally don’t like the neutral/beloved/despised distinction
The feminist linguist who designed Láadan thought that “patriarchal” languages weren’t sufficiently emotionally loaded. I’d like to see how she’d write a newspaper article using those pronouns.
When it comes to pronouns English and also German has ‘we’ which can mean a lot of things.
Me+You
Me+Others (you not included)
Me+Others + Maybe you
Me+ Others and/or you (the default english you)
Me+You+Others
You can even further distinguish between how many others are included. Láadan has:
lazh = we: pronoun: 1st person: several: beloved
len = we: pronoun: 1st person: many: neutral
lezh = we: pronoun: 1st person, several, neutral
lin = we: pronoun, 1st person, many, honored
lhelezh = we: pronoun, 1st person, several, despised
lizh = we: pronoun, 1st person, several, honored
lhelen = we: pronoun, 1st person, many, despised
lan = we: pronoun: 1st person: many: beloved
I personally don’t like the neutral/beloved/despised distinction but I think the several/many distinction could be useful and it’s worth thinking about integrating it. Having those different shades of ‘we’ prevents confusion where the other person things you meant a different shade than they you did mean.
I think that a new language that provides a much better ability to express shades of meaning by being better at expressing many different things, can provide a real advantage over the existing language and that’s then a reason for people to learn it.
The feminist linguist who designed Láadan thought that “patriarchal” languages weren’t sufficiently emotionally loaded. I’d like to see how she’d write a newspaper article using those pronouns.