<nettime> OnlyOneNativeSpeaker: the collaborative Babylon bonanza

[Wilfried Hou Je Bek <wilfriedhoujebek {AT} yahoo.com>]

OnlyOneNativeSpeaker
the collaborative Babylon bonanza

http://socialfiction.org/onlyone

Languages, by cultural definition, seek standardisation and mass-adoption; 
the command of language is one axis on which the ability to participate in 
all what society has to offer revolves around. It's to this domain of 
human culture that OnlyOneNativeSpeaker seeks to add parallelism, 
diversity and heterogeneity. It will do this by creating thousands of new 
artificial languages. Languages with deliberately just that: Only One 
Native Speaker.

A language is a collaborative effort to conceptualise place and time. At 
the most fundamental level languages reflect the environment of, and the 
social agreements between, the community it belongs to. The study of 
languages from other cultures is of direct important to us, as it shows us 
the boundaries of our own culture, and refutes claims of cultural 
universality.

OnlyOneNativeSpeaker excludes no possible line of enquiry. Every 
artificial language, independent of medium, origin and intent helps to 
display the horizon of possibility, in ourselves as well as in others. But 
creating a language from scratch is not the only option, finding languages 
where nobody did before: in crowds, in amoeba, or in the shape of rocks, 
is of equal interest to the scope of OnlyOneNativeSpeaker.

How can you participate in the Babylon bonanza that is called 
OnlyOneNativeSpeaker? That's simple, develop a language! While doing that, 
send us an e-mail with a link to the website containing the purpose and 
details of your language. If necessary we can host this information for 
you. At the same time OnlyOneNativeSpeaker will try to facilitate the 
exchange of ideas between all people involved as far as language permits.

Our Website:
http://socialfiction.org/onlyone

Get in Touch:
onlyone [at] socialfiction [dot]org

=====
Accumulated Gore & Grime:

http://socialfiction.org
http://socialfiction.org/onlyone
http://tinyurl.com/2orsc



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