On 10 Jan 2012 at 20:13, Rich Alderson wrote:
And it's interesting that you chose, of all
languages, Old Church
Slavonic as your example. OCS was based on the South Slavic languages
of the 10th Century (CE) Balkans, with vocabulary borrowed as needed
from Koine ("New Testament") and Byzantine Greek to fill in the needed
concepts for expressing (Orthodox) Christian theology in languages
which did not share that world view. The Christian scriptures were
translated into this refined and enhanced language for the purpose of
converting the heathen Slavs from their old ways of belief.
It worked. I'd say that that's a pretty damn good pedigree as these
things go.
Damn, this soapbox didn't look so tall when I climbed up here.
Well, I'll defer to your scholarship, as I haven't studied the matter
too much. Basic English did get a lot of attention at one point--and
regarding Scripture, there does exist a Basic English version of the
Bible. Whether or not it's converted anyone is another matter
entirely.
--Chuck