Re: VMs: Mixtures of languages in the VMS

[Dennis <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx>]

	I had similar thoughts.

Bruce Grant wrote:
> 
> It's like fitting a (polynomial) curve to a set of data points - by
> using  enough powers in the formula you can make the curve fit all the
> data points exactly, but that doesn't generally produce the best fit -
> between those particular points the curve can gyrate wildly.

	Been there.  I never use more than 5th power.
 
> Given the freedom of seventeen vocabularies and no common gramatical
> rules, it seems like you could make the VMS say almost anything ...
> beware, that way lies madness!

	I quite agree.  

	An exception might be a pidgin language that combines
two or even three languages.  Some extant examples. 
Bruxellois of Brussels is  a mixture of Flemish and
French.  Between Aachen, Maastricht, and Liege a pidgin
mixture of French, Dutch, and German is used.  List
member Claus Anders told me of it; as I recall, the
rules are more Germanic, but words of all languages are
there.  

	Other possibilities.  An unattested or poorly attested
Romance or Germanic language, (say Dalmatian, a Romance
language which became extinct in the 20th century),
which however would bear strong resemblance to known
cognates.  A pidgin language resembling Lingua Franca
which is poorly attested.

	Examples of such things have existed, then!  However,
in the absence of attestation outside the VMs, it seems
indeed like you could make the VMs say anything.  That
way lies madness... not to mention Levitov.

Dennis
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