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From: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Language committees
Message-ID: <752@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Oct-86 15:02:32 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.752
Posted: Thu Oct 23 15:02:32 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Oct-86 01:26:48 EST
References: <3489@utcsri.UUCP> <8209@watrose.UUCP> <8212@watrose.UUCP>
Reply-To: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael maxwell)
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 19
Keywords: linguistic change, language committees, tribal languages

In article <8212@watrose.UUCP> cctimar@watrose.UUCP (Cary Timar) writes:
>A text I once used mentioned a tribe whose language had to change
>rapidly because of taboos.  This tribe had a council of elderly women
>whose function was to decide the new vocabulary as necessary.

I wish I could remember the reference, but in time-honored usnet tradition
I'll just comment out of ignorance.  I believe the situation was that
people's names were taken from objects in nature (animals, etc.).  When
someone died, their name became taboo (to avoid angering their spirit, I
suppose).  But since you needed a word to refer to the thing that person had
been named after, someone had to make up a new word for that object.  It would
be interesting to know how long people remembered that a word was taboo, i.e.
whether in the long run the old word or the new one was remembered...  It
would certainly make a mess of glottochronology!  Anyone remember where the
tribe was?  Australia??
-- 
Mike Maxwell
Boeing Advanced Technology Center
	...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm