[Ltru] RE: Using the "eur" tag

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Kent Karlsson wrote:

> John Cowan wrote:
>> As I said: the language is a joke, the code element is not.
>
> It still makes the registration of a code element for this joke
> in the 639-3 registry a mistake.

I tend to agree, on the grounds that "Europanto" is not a language under 
any normal meaning for "language". It is just an idea rather than 
consistent system in the sense that English, Swahili, or Esperanto is 
consistent. There are languages that are now extinct, but can we call 
something a language when it was never actually used for human 
communication in any normal sense?

A purely imaginary language, such as those created by Tolkien, is a 
borderline case. It could exist as a mere joke. But Europanto doesn't. 
It's just a worn-out joke at the level of a vague idea of mixing 
different languages arbitrarily.

Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/