Since then, the second element, typically expanded from the original blend to -onics but sometimes just -ics, has been used widely in humorous contexts, like Hickonics, for example, or Wisconics. (How these relate to Ebonics socially and politically is a topic for another time.) But I don't recall offhand cases where it's been extended to this kind of situation, i.e. a proposal for a proto-language. -ic is very common (Altaic, Uralic, Tungusic, Germanic, etc.), but That's a different creature.
Our readers will surely correct me if I'm wrong.
A big h.t. to M.O.
PS, just so I'm on the record: Edenics is seriously flawed as an effort to understand the history of human language.
5 comments:
Evidence that this really IS a joke?
And for some reason in the case of jocular or satirical names for "languages" it's usually "-ese" (journalese, officalese, Americanese, Whitehallese etc). Or "-speak", perhaps after Orwell's Newspeak.
What would we call this if we wanted it to sound like a dead serious proposal? Edenese IS awkward, for the reason you note. Edenian? Just Edenic? Heck, most of these are probably out there already.
Thanks.
Got to be Edenic I reckon. It already exists as an adjective, relating to Eden. Apparently Edenian is a geological term ("a stage of the Ordovician in the Lower Cincinnatian Series of N. America").
Yeah, you can't really use Proto-Eden, because it WAS Eden. Maybe you'd just call it Bad Science and be done with it?
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