Call number
Genres
Publication
New York : Spiegel & Grau paperback, 2010
Pages
342
Description
Okrent tells the fascinating and highly entertaining history of man's enduring quest to build a better language. Peopled with charming eccentrics and exasperating megalomaniacs, the land of invented languages is a place where you can recite the Lord's Prayer in John Wilkins's Philosophical Language, say your wedding vows in Loglan, and read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in Lojban--not to mention Babm, Blissymbolics, and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages featured in this language-lover's book.
Media reviews
Booklist
For linguists and language mavens alike, this is a massively enjoyable book, full of dreamers and geniuses who devoted their lives to building a better language and, quite often, failed spectacularly.
Publishers Weekly
[Okrent] conveys fascinating insights into why natural language, with its corruptions, ambiguities and arbitrary conventions, trips so fluently off our tongues.
I’ve never had much interest in artificial languages, but this completely won me over. Arika Okrent writes well and tells a great story, but she also has a PhD in linguistics, which makes all the difference; any good journalist could spin a lively tale out of some of this material (people who
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spend their lives creating and trying to publicize languages tend to be pretty colorful), but it takes a linguist to see what’s going on with the languages and be able to point out where they succeed and where they fail. Okrent has written a gripping account of some amazing people and some fascinating changes in the European cultural environment. Show Less
Awards
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2009)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009
2007 (Ch 22 & 23 published as "Among the Klingons" in Tin House Magazine - Summer)
2006 (Ch 6 & 8 published as "Letter from Esperantoland" in Tin House Magazine - Winter)
Physical description
342 p.; 8 inches
ISBN
9780812980899
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member cocoafiend
This is a terrifically entertaining read for language-nerds. It's essentially a guided tour of artificial languages and the personalities behind them, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen's 12th century Lingua Ignota, through Esperanto and Klingon, to the hair-splitting logic of Lojban. Besides
But perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the book is Okrent's close attention to both the intentions and fates of these invented languages. Many were supposed to unite humanity and foster peace, or become an easily learned lingua franca, or serve as the language of fictive realms, from Middle Earth to the Star Trek universe. The vast majority failed to thrive, surviving only in forgotten tomes. Some became useful in unexpected ways: helping children with cerebral palsy to communicate, being adapted for the blind, or simply creating a community for avid language lovers. When Suzette Haden Elgin's invented a feminist language in her 1984 sci-fi novel, Native Tongue, she hoped it might find speakers interested in further adapting it to better express female experience. Instead, only the novel survives as an example of the intersection between science fiction and feminist utopias.
This is not a book for hard-core linguists who want to immerse themselves in the various grammars of the invented languages, but rather for lay readers interested in surveying the history of language invention and meeting some of the personalities engaged in this Sisyphean undertaking.
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grouping the languages into broad types (philosophical languages, humanist languages, symbolic languages, logical languages and so on), Okrent narrates her experiences learning something of them and getting to know the communities that support them. She gets her basic certification in Klingon, attends an Esperanto congress, dabbles in translating Borges into John Wilkins' philosophical language, and scrutinizes Loglan poetry.But perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the book is Okrent's close attention to both the intentions and fates of these invented languages. Many were supposed to unite humanity and foster peace, or become an easily learned lingua franca, or serve as the language of fictive realms, from Middle Earth to the Star Trek universe. The vast majority failed to thrive, surviving only in forgotten tomes. Some became useful in unexpected ways: helping children with cerebral palsy to communicate, being adapted for the blind, or simply creating a community for avid language lovers. When Suzette Haden Elgin's invented a feminist language in her 1984 sci-fi novel, Native Tongue, she hoped it might find speakers interested in further adapting it to better express female experience. Instead, only the novel survives as an example of the intersection between science fiction and feminist utopias.
This is not a book for hard-core linguists who want to immerse themselves in the various grammars of the invented languages, but rather for lay readers interested in surveying the history of language invention and meeting some of the personalities engaged in this Sisyphean undertaking.
Show Less
LibraryThing member fdholt
Invented languages have been around for hundreds of years, the result of man trying to improve on natural language. Some languages were totally developed from scratch while others were modifications of existing languages. Some used existing alphabets while others used symbols. And some were
Of special interest to me was her section on sign language. With deaf parents and maternal grandparents, I grew up with sign language; Okrent also has connections with the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she lives. The development of sign language closely parallels both artificial and natural languages with signs that are universal and others that develop within a culture. This section also outlined Blissymbolics, a way of communication for persons who had speech and motor problems. Had Charles Bliss been more reasonable, that system may have helped many children and adults. Bliss made so much trouble for a Toronto school that was using his system that others stayed away from it.
The book includes a list of 500 invented languages and their inventors (of the 900 that Okrent was able to identify), a bibliography along with references in the text itself including some web sources, and samples of languages along with the translations. The text also includes text which can be translated. However this is not easy to do in some of the languages even with Okrent’s instructions. She also outlines her quest to find the proper word for “shit” using John Wilkins categories in his philosophical language published in 1668. As it turns out, the categories do read like an early version of a thesaurus but it isn’t easy. Try speaking it!
This is an enjoyable and informative book, one that has been an incentive to get out my Klingon dictionary and language immersion program.
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developed for literature and film. Arika Okrent, a linguist, writes of the inventors, the languages, the reasons and the reactions in an easy to read style. Interspersed with her personal story (she managed to get an excellent grade on the first level Klingon exam) are the stories of men and women who made developing a new language their life’s work. She focuses on several important inventors: John Wilkins and his hierarchies, Ludwik Zamenhof and Esperanto, Charles Bliss and his symbols, and finally to TV and film with Marc Okrand’s Klingon. She also discusses the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language and ties it to the establishment of Israel.Of special interest to me was her section on sign language. With deaf parents and maternal grandparents, I grew up with sign language; Okrent also has connections with the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she lives. The development of sign language closely parallels both artificial and natural languages with signs that are universal and others that develop within a culture. This section also outlined Blissymbolics, a way of communication for persons who had speech and motor problems. Had Charles Bliss been more reasonable, that system may have helped many children and adults. Bliss made so much trouble for a Toronto school that was using his system that others stayed away from it.
The book includes a list of 500 invented languages and their inventors (of the 900 that Okrent was able to identify), a bibliography along with references in the text itself including some web sources, and samples of languages along with the translations. The text also includes text which can be translated. However this is not easy to do in some of the languages even with Okrent’s instructions. She also outlines her quest to find the proper word for “shit” using John Wilkins categories in his philosophical language published in 1668. As it turns out, the categories do read like an early version of a thesaurus but it isn’t easy. Try speaking it!
This is an enjoyable and informative book, one that has been an incentive to get out my Klingon dictionary and language immersion program.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mjgrogan
Okrent begins with her semi-inculcation into Klingon in New Jersey. I sigh, scratch my head, and flip to the back to revisit her credentials. Then she jumps back a few centuries to some cat named John Wilkins in Black Plague-era London where she attempts something of a deconstruction of his
Indeed, I soon enough toss the book aside, bookmarked at page 208, roughly 300 years after Wilkins, so I can go to bed. I don’t want to and I can’t wait to resume the following morning. Yes, I’m supposed to be reading a thick, obnoxious study guide about mechanical and electrical engineering systems, so even a book about Australian Jai Alai champions from the seventies might seem an appealing diversion, but this story is quite fascinating.
The book is the result of the linguist Okrent finally giving into her sick desire to investigate that odd selection of books that lie roughly between mid-PM and PN on the shelves of her local libraries and, if only to save the rest of us such a trip, this is a terrific synopsis of the history of intentionally constructed languages (in direct contrast to the more incrementally/evolutionarily developed, non-“authored” languages that most of us actually use). The seemingly pat estimate is that around 900 fabricated languages have been developed within the previous 900 years. Mercifully, she doesn’t touch on all of them (in the appendix she compiles a list of 500 she feels should qualify – having a decently documented history, verifiable dates, amusing names, and so forth). What she does is select a handful that had/have, for various reasons, acquired a certain longevity – an Elite Eight or thereabouts – and presents the stories of their development, following, and, in most cases, eventual demise (I think one can safely forecast the death of Klingon and Lojban). Importantly, she tethers these ideas and their manifestations to their attendant historical, social, and political contexts to explain the underlying intentions. From the mathematically deduced alternatives to illogical western languages, the creation of a post-Babylonian language to enable World Peace, through to the seeming uselessness of Klingon and other recent “Conlang” proposals that may or may not result in a smallish convention at an Albuquerque Hotel.
In case it’s not apparent, I’m not necessarily a big enthusiast of Invented-Languages-for-Invented-Languages-sake. Actually, I don’t think I’ve thought about this subject since…well…ever (or at least since I saw the fellas speaking Jive in the movie Airplane circa 1981). The author apparently wasn’t either – and some of it still seems to strike her as so much crap – but she approaches this in such a manner that I couldn’t help but become engaged with this perplexing history. Okrent the linguist even seems to subtly disclose a bit of envy. At the very least she develops a respect for these “kooks” and bored engineers who toil away, inventing their own lexicons – often quite sophisticated in structure if not necessarily digestible. And, in contrast to some of the disgruntled fabricators from previous eras, the internet-era guys (apparently 99% men) seem to really enjoy it all despite guaranteed failure and social deprecations. Perhaps this should be read as a sweet, autobiographical, coming-of-age tale or whatever, but at the very least I enjoyed the historical foray into a strange world where few have gone before.
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invented “Philosophical Language” – contorted diagrams and all – with the aim of tracking down his reinvention of the word “shit.” Things aren’t necessarily looking up. No way I’m getting through this one.Indeed, I soon enough toss the book aside, bookmarked at page 208, roughly 300 years after Wilkins, so I can go to bed. I don’t want to and I can’t wait to resume the following morning. Yes, I’m supposed to be reading a thick, obnoxious study guide about mechanical and electrical engineering systems, so even a book about Australian Jai Alai champions from the seventies might seem an appealing diversion, but this story is quite fascinating.
The book is the result of the linguist Okrent finally giving into her sick desire to investigate that odd selection of books that lie roughly between mid-PM and PN on the shelves of her local libraries and, if only to save the rest of us such a trip, this is a terrific synopsis of the history of intentionally constructed languages (in direct contrast to the more incrementally/evolutionarily developed, non-“authored” languages that most of us actually use). The seemingly pat estimate is that around 900 fabricated languages have been developed within the previous 900 years. Mercifully, she doesn’t touch on all of them (in the appendix she compiles a list of 500 she feels should qualify – having a decently documented history, verifiable dates, amusing names, and so forth). What she does is select a handful that had/have, for various reasons, acquired a certain longevity – an Elite Eight or thereabouts – and presents the stories of their development, following, and, in most cases, eventual demise (I think one can safely forecast the death of Klingon and Lojban). Importantly, she tethers these ideas and their manifestations to their attendant historical, social, and political contexts to explain the underlying intentions. From the mathematically deduced alternatives to illogical western languages, the creation of a post-Babylonian language to enable World Peace, through to the seeming uselessness of Klingon and other recent “Conlang” proposals that may or may not result in a smallish convention at an Albuquerque Hotel.
In case it’s not apparent, I’m not necessarily a big enthusiast of Invented-Languages-for-Invented-Languages-sake. Actually, I don’t think I’ve thought about this subject since…well…ever (or at least since I saw the fellas speaking Jive in the movie Airplane circa 1981). The author apparently wasn’t either – and some of it still seems to strike her as so much crap – but she approaches this in such a manner that I couldn’t help but become engaged with this perplexing history. Okrent the linguist even seems to subtly disclose a bit of envy. At the very least she develops a respect for these “kooks” and bored engineers who toil away, inventing their own lexicons – often quite sophisticated in structure if not necessarily digestible. And, in contrast to some of the disgruntled fabricators from previous eras, the internet-era guys (apparently 99% men) seem to really enjoy it all despite guaranteed failure and social deprecations. Perhaps this should be read as a sweet, autobiographical, coming-of-age tale or whatever, but at the very least I enjoyed the historical foray into a strange world where few have gone before.
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LibraryThing member JimmyChanga
This book was the perfect balance of everything: humor, information, history, thought-provocation, etc. And the exact book I needed to get me out of the rut of non-reading I've been in the last 2 months.
It's a look into the amusing world of invented languages, ones invented by a single person as
Well, first of all, it takes a hell of an eccentric to come up with a language and have the guns to stick with the laborious task of creating a full vocabulary, rules, syntax, etc. These folks are usually dreamers. They were unsatisfied with natural languages for various reasons: inconsistencies, illogicality, difficulty, imprecision, etc. so they set out to create a language of their own that would be free from these flaws.
This book follows five main invented languages as well as covering many other competing ones in lesser detail: Wilkin's Philosophical Language, Esperanto, Blissymbolics, Loglan, and Klingon. Each one had a different history, a different ideal that the inventor wanted to achieve, and a different outcome in terms of real world use.
But what makes this book head and shoulders above most other books that cover a fascinating subject is…
1.
Unlike some books written by a journalist who has dabbled in a weird subculture, Arika Okrent is herself a linguist that just happens to be a really good writer, and so she is more than equipped to bring out subtle insights (without getting too technical for the layman)... things like what made this language unique, and why did it succeed/fail? I particularly enjoyed the section on why the many flaws and imperfections in natural languages are actually necessary and/or good for certain things (usability for example). And she's more than just a distant academic voice, throughout the book she makes a good effort to learn each language that she talks about, and when available, immerses herself in the subculture of its speakers (Esperanto, Klingon). Even though she is an academic, there is no sober stuffiness here, her enthusiasm for her subject is evident on every page.
2.
The book is hilarious! I laughed through many parts of it, especially the part where she described going out to a restaurant with a bunch of Klingon speakers who have sworn to speak only Klingon that day, and how she died of shame as they started to order in their made-up language, pointing and grunting at the menu despite the poor waiter's confusion.
But the humor isn't a cheap one. It would be easy to just poke fun all day at this cast of characters (they definitely give her plenty of material). But because she relates to them (to a degree), she sees through to what drives them, what makes them devote so much time to such a futile enterprise. And so the humor is very good natured, very balanced and genuine, and in a way, it's as if she's having a good chuckle at herself at times.
3.
She doesn't just highlight these languages and the people behind them, providing factoids and interesting tidbits good for dinner-party conversations. No, at the beginning of each chapter she gives a timeline of the key events before and after. This allows you to see that these languages weren't invented in a vacuum, but that they represented a real continuity sprung from a certain context. These inventors were idealists, but idealists within their time, and so the languages they invented reflected these dreams: the need for an ultimate order to the world for example (Wilkins), or the need to circumvent the duplicity of words (Blissymbolics). She's somehow able to tell very human stories through the medium of linguistics.
It's a look into the amusing world of invented languages, ones invented by a single person as
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opposed to a language arising organically through a community of users who create it on the fly, evolving it to their needs. And there have not been a shortage of them: an estimated 900 in the last 900 years. Almost all of these are complete failures, if you define a failure of a language as one that isn't used by anyone. But what drives these people to create them in the first place, against all odds of mass adaption?Well, first of all, it takes a hell of an eccentric to come up with a language and have the guns to stick with the laborious task of creating a full vocabulary, rules, syntax, etc. These folks are usually dreamers. They were unsatisfied with natural languages for various reasons: inconsistencies, illogicality, difficulty, imprecision, etc. so they set out to create a language of their own that would be free from these flaws.
This book follows five main invented languages as well as covering many other competing ones in lesser detail: Wilkin's Philosophical Language, Esperanto, Blissymbolics, Loglan, and Klingon. Each one had a different history, a different ideal that the inventor wanted to achieve, and a different outcome in terms of real world use.
But what makes this book head and shoulders above most other books that cover a fascinating subject is…
1.
Unlike some books written by a journalist who has dabbled in a weird subculture, Arika Okrent is herself a linguist that just happens to be a really good writer, and so she is more than equipped to bring out subtle insights (without getting too technical for the layman)... things like what made this language unique, and why did it succeed/fail? I particularly enjoyed the section on why the many flaws and imperfections in natural languages are actually necessary and/or good for certain things (usability for example). And she's more than just a distant academic voice, throughout the book she makes a good effort to learn each language that she talks about, and when available, immerses herself in the subculture of its speakers (Esperanto, Klingon). Even though she is an academic, there is no sober stuffiness here, her enthusiasm for her subject is evident on every page.
2.
The book is hilarious! I laughed through many parts of it, especially the part where she described going out to a restaurant with a bunch of Klingon speakers who have sworn to speak only Klingon that day, and how she died of shame as they started to order in their made-up language, pointing and grunting at the menu despite the poor waiter's confusion.
But the humor isn't a cheap one. It would be easy to just poke fun all day at this cast of characters (they definitely give her plenty of material). But because she relates to them (to a degree), she sees through to what drives them, what makes them devote so much time to such a futile enterprise. And so the humor is very good natured, very balanced and genuine, and in a way, it's as if she's having a good chuckle at herself at times.
3.
She doesn't just highlight these languages and the people behind them, providing factoids and interesting tidbits good for dinner-party conversations. No, at the beginning of each chapter she gives a timeline of the key events before and after. This allows you to see that these languages weren't invented in a vacuum, but that they represented a real continuity sprung from a certain context. These inventors were idealists, but idealists within their time, and so the languages they invented reflected these dreams: the need for an ultimate order to the world for example (Wilkins), or the need to circumvent the duplicity of words (Blissymbolics). She's somehow able to tell very human stories through the medium of linguistics.
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LibraryThing member NielsenGW
I have been waiting to read this one ever since I first heard of it—a book devoted to all the languages that have been created by other people. Everyday languages are organic: they have no real inventor but time and culture. These things shape the way we talk about the world and express
Over the last nine hundred years, approximately nine hundred language have been artificially created. They come in bursts, though. After Hildegard von Bingen composed Lingua Ignota in the twelfth century, it was three hundred years before Muhyi-I Gulseni created Balaibalan. The last two centuries have been the heyday for language creation, with some 470 documented new languages. Okrent’s tour through language creation hits the highlights, from Wilkin’s Philosophical Language (1668) to Schleyer’s Volapuk (1879) to Zamenhof’s incredibly popular Esperanto (1887) and even to the modern-day tussles over Klingon.
Her investigations of these languages talk about whether language can ever truly represent ideas, how we perceive and classify the physical and metaphysical world, and if the rules of spoken language can ever really be made simple. Many languages, once invented and released into the “wild,” change radically, serving the needs of the speakers rather than the rulebooks of the inventors (much to the chagrin of the inventors). James Cooke Brown lost control of Loglan much like C. K. Bliss could not tolerate the changes made to his Blissymbolics.
As a language nut, I really enjoyed this book. Okrent’s joyful attitude towards language and grammar speaks to her background as a linguist. She whole-heartedly immerses herself in contemporary artificial languages, hoping to find one that both fun to learn and follows more rules than the others. What she does find, however, are groups of people so enamored with the communities that new languages create, that sometimes it doesn’t really matter if you can’t understand each other. Simply the act of trying to communicate is all you need to bring people together. And perhaps also a dictionary. A quick and fun book.
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ourselves. But someone had to sit down and invent Esperanto, to compose Klingon, to shape the way that Loglan works. These languages were created for many reason, but the main one seems to be so that people of different nationalities and cultures could finally communicate with one another. Arika Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages explores the rich history of those people who tried (and ultimately failed) to create a single language that all of humanity could use. And along the way, she reveals what little truth in contained in language, and how that reflects on us as language’s users.Over the last nine hundred years, approximately nine hundred language have been artificially created. They come in bursts, though. After Hildegard von Bingen composed Lingua Ignota in the twelfth century, it was three hundred years before Muhyi-I Gulseni created Balaibalan. The last two centuries have been the heyday for language creation, with some 470 documented new languages. Okrent’s tour through language creation hits the highlights, from Wilkin’s Philosophical Language (1668) to Schleyer’s Volapuk (1879) to Zamenhof’s incredibly popular Esperanto (1887) and even to the modern-day tussles over Klingon.
Her investigations of these languages talk about whether language can ever truly represent ideas, how we perceive and classify the physical and metaphysical world, and if the rules of spoken language can ever really be made simple. Many languages, once invented and released into the “wild,” change radically, serving the needs of the speakers rather than the rulebooks of the inventors (much to the chagrin of the inventors). James Cooke Brown lost control of Loglan much like C. K. Bliss could not tolerate the changes made to his Blissymbolics.
As a language nut, I really enjoyed this book. Okrent’s joyful attitude towards language and grammar speaks to her background as a linguist. She whole-heartedly immerses herself in contemporary artificial languages, hoping to find one that both fun to learn and follows more rules than the others. What she does find, however, are groups of people so enamored with the communities that new languages create, that sometimes it doesn’t really matter if you can’t understand each other. Simply the act of trying to communicate is all you need to bring people together. And perhaps also a dictionary. A quick and fun book.
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LibraryThing member Jellyn
The author looks at the history of invention surrounding well, invented languages. And if you like languages at all, then it's fascinating. Although I could have wished for a little better organization. The author seems to jump about in time here and there, which can be confusing. And there is some
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repetition of information, as if she forgot she already told us that.Oddly, I was at least a third if not halfway through the book before I realized the author was a woman. It was an odd experience having to make that shift in my head. What finally clued me in? Her reference to her husband. But of course then I had to stop and reread that, and realize.. no, she still didn't say she wasn't a man who happened to have a husband. But of course flipping to the author bio and author picture on the back dust flap.. well, that was pretty definitive. And you might think 'Arika' would've made me think it was most likely a woman. And yet..No, somehow I didn't really notice the author's name. Did not read her bio before reading the book. Did not see her picture before starting to read the book.And yes, even though I know linguistics is one science where there are a lot of women.. somehow I still thought it was a man writing it for a good way into the book.End tangent.So the author starts out learning about Klingon and going to a Klingon convention (excuse me, conference). And that part was interesting, and then she leaves us there to backtrack and talk about all these other languages that were invented before Klingon. Which is kind of shame, because I found the discussion of Klingon culture (that is, the culture of human Klingon speakers, not actual Klingons) and the discussion of Esperanto culture to be, actually, more interesting than the history of the people who invented the languages in the first place.But that was interesting too. A lot of men with ideas that natural languages just weren't doing it for them, and thought they could do better.And not too far into it, I started to think.. you know, these languages probably have a huge male bias to them. Like, there's one chart of bodily functions and I did not see menstruation on there. I bet he left that concept out of his language.Or there'd be languages where the default is 'male' and to make 'female' or 'woman', you had to add something. As in English.So I was thinking that would be a really interesting study to do and wondering if I was capable of doing it without a linguistics or women's studies degree.And then somewhere after the point where I realized the author was a woman, she starts talking about Laadan. And of course I knew about that language already, because I loved Suzette Haden Elgin's book (before I knew it was a series). And of course the first words she uses in discussing her female-oriented language is.. menstruation. And to form the male version of like man and boy, you first start with the default of female and turn it male.So yea, female linguists noticed that male-ness before I ever conceived of it. And it's nice to know not all invented languages are male in origin. Even though I sort of already knew that.And, in the end, I got more interested in Esperanto, Laadan, and Klingon. As the three languages that I consider most useful to know more about. Considering two of them are alive and well, and the other is gendered differently.I downloaded an Esperanto learning app on my iPhone. I did not do a Klingon one, because that COSTS MONEY STUPID PARAMOUNT GREEDMONSTERS GRR.I did not look for a Laadan app. I kind of assumed there wasn't one. (Searched. Does not appear to be one.)So, in short: LANGUAGES AWESOME SQUEEE! Show Less
LibraryThing member Katya0133
"In the Land of Invented Languages" was written for the average reader but shows a solid foundation in linguistics often missing in popular books on language. (Indeed, Okrent's explanation of the relationship between the writing systems of Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese is one of the clearest
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I've seen in any linguistics text.) Add to that a fascinating group of stories spanning several hundred years and this book gets a rare 5-star rating from me. Show Less
LibraryThing member mlindner
I enjoyed this book immensely despite my already being familiar with much of its contents. It is an easily digestible introduction and overview of invented languages and their inventors, be they a priori, a posteriori or mixed languages.
If Eco's The Search for the Perfect Language is too formidable
If Eco's The Search for the Perfect Language is too formidable
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for you, or you would like a warm-up first, this is a perfect book for you. While it does touch on much of what Eco does not--Esperanto, Klingon, Lojban, etc.--and leaves out some of what Eco does--it barely mentions the search for the Adamaic language--many of the same folks and languages do show up; for instance, Wilkins. Show Less
LibraryThing member danielbeattie
A great and entertaining book, and a easy read too. Okrent has so much love to her subject and it shows. Even people who only have a passing interest in linguistics should read this book. Its not just for language-nerds, as it contains many interesting stories about the people behind the languages
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and also discussions of different strategies that creators of synthetic languages have used. Best book I have read this year. Show Less
LibraryThing member akblanchard
This book provides an engaging look at the phenomenon of artificial languages–like Esperanto, to cite the most famous example–and the unusual people (some would say crackpots) who invent them. I really enjoyed it, but it took a long time for me to finish it.
LibraryThing member esquetee
Arika Okrent treats what could be a dry subject with a healthy dose of good humor. She takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through a few of the artificial language movements of recent history. But rather than give a textbook chronology of who-wrote-what, she interviewed friends and family of the
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language inventors to give us more intimate portraits of some fantastic personalities. Best of all, she has listed 500 of the known invented languages with dates in Appendix A and then samples of translations from a few of the languages in Appendix B. I do wish there were specific footnotes or endnotes within her chapters instead of just a "further reading" list at the end, but apparently publishers think readers can't handle that anymore. Okrent, however, knew better than to patronize her readers. Her book is a witty, clever introduction to "the faded plastic flowers, the artificial languages." Show Less
LibraryThing member akswede
A highly entertaining and educational romp through the world of invented languages.
LibraryThing member vpfluke
This is an absorbing book on languages that people have created to make the world a better place, or, if not, to show off how good it is to show off complicated linguistics. Many people have tried their hand at inventing languages in the last 500 years, and Arika Okrent presents an abbreviated list
Okra starts off with lagnauge of John Wilkins fromthe mid1600's, who wanted to better organize mankind's thoughts with a more rational language. The language is best described with logic trees and it is wonderful (i.e. full of wonder) reoganization of ideas and thought. There is no record that anyone really tried to speak it, but Okrent delves deeply and learns it well enough to be able to write a sentence in it.
She next takes up the development of Esperanto and its predecessors, Solresol, Universalglot, and Volapük. These reflect the development of comparative linguistics, when linguists discoverd that languages from Northern India through to Western Europe were all related into on family. The spirit behind these languages was an effort to bring a greaer harmony to mankind with a common lanuguage. The most successful of these has been Esperanto, which even has a Wikipedia version. But despite the desire for harmony, this gets broken by the automatic human urge to change the language, and whether this is proper or not, particularly to the language's inventor.
A really intersting languae is that developed by Charles Bliss, who created a language of symbols, to put a more pictorial effort in language, not dissimilar to Chinese characters. The greatest sucsess has been with disabled children who cannot speak, but can work with the symbols. Bliss himself was both its greates propnent and its greatest detractor, when his personality became imperious.
Loglan was invented to try to get around the situation presented by Benjamin Whorf of the influence of the structure of language on the speakers' thoughts. Loglan (also in a version called Lojban, to get around the possessivenss of its owner, James Cooke Brown) has an amazing complex grammar designed to allow its peakers to express all the subtle variations that different languages can have. he challenge of speaking it properly has kept its number small.
Klingon is a kind of "fun" language orignally developed for use in the various Star Trek TV sries and movies by the warrior race of Klingons. It is poined unlike most known languages, but many people who like the role-playing of Science fiction conventions will try their hand at realy learning Klingon Okrent estimates that more people speak Klngon than any other invented language except Esperanto.
For anyone interested in languages this book is well worth the read.
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of the 500 languages that have caught her fancy as an appendix.Okra starts off with lagnauge of John Wilkins fromthe mid1600's, who wanted to better organize mankind's thoughts with a more rational language. The language is best described with logic trees and it is wonderful (i.e. full of wonder) reoganization of ideas and thought. There is no record that anyone really tried to speak it, but Okrent delves deeply and learns it well enough to be able to write a sentence in it.
She next takes up the development of Esperanto and its predecessors, Solresol, Universalglot, and Volapük. These reflect the development of comparative linguistics, when linguists discoverd that languages from Northern India through to Western Europe were all related into on family. The spirit behind these languages was an effort to bring a greaer harmony to mankind with a common lanuguage. The most successful of these has been Esperanto, which even has a Wikipedia version. But despite the desire for harmony, this gets broken by the automatic human urge to change the language, and whether this is proper or not, particularly to the language's inventor.
A really intersting languae is that developed by Charles Bliss, who created a language of symbols, to put a more pictorial effort in language, not dissimilar to Chinese characters. The greatest sucsess has been with disabled children who cannot speak, but can work with the symbols. Bliss himself was both its greates propnent and its greatest detractor, when his personality became imperious.
Loglan was invented to try to get around the situation presented by Benjamin Whorf of the influence of the structure of language on the speakers' thoughts. Loglan (also in a version called Lojban, to get around the possessivenss of its owner, James Cooke Brown) has an amazing complex grammar designed to allow its peakers to express all the subtle variations that different languages can have. he challenge of speaking it properly has kept its number small.
Klingon is a kind of "fun" language orignally developed for use in the various Star Trek TV sries and movies by the warrior race of Klingons. It is poined unlike most known languages, but many people who like the role-playing of Science fiction conventions will try their hand at realy learning Klingon Okrent estimates that more people speak Klngon than any other invented language except Esperanto.
For anyone interested in languages this book is well worth the read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
It was cute. But not especially interesting. One made up language felt like another, and all the creators of language (with the exception of Klingon) seem to be meglomaniacs - trying to make the perfect language, and than insisting it the only language that people should use. In a way, it felt like
Klingon is different because it was made for a TV show, no ulterior motive. Esperanto, the biggest group of made language - the people who speak seemed a bit sad. I'm not sure if this is because of the way the author perceived speakers of Esperanto. Either way, it made me have no desire to learn Esperanto.
The one language I found especially intriguing is American Sign Language.
Its an interesting book - but I find the history of natural languages to be much more interesting.
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each person who made up a language is starting a cult.Klingon is different because it was made for a TV show, no ulterior motive. Esperanto, the biggest group of made language - the people who speak seemed a bit sad. I'm not sure if this is because of the way the author perceived speakers of Esperanto. Either way, it made me have no desire to learn Esperanto.
The one language I found especially intriguing is American Sign Language.
Its an interesting book - but I find the history of natural languages to be much more interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member GranitePeakPubs
Very interesting but I found it to be more of a wandering collection of essays than a coherent book.
LibraryThing member Lindoula
A highly entertaining and educational romp through the world of invented languages.
LibraryThing member JesseTheK
Intriguing, scattered. Many tidbits about constructed languages and the intellectual contexts in which they flourished, from Hildegard von Biden's 12th C Lingua Ifnota to 2007's Dritok. Mocks language constructors while learning Klingon.
LibraryThing member tronella
I suppose the title is pretty self-explanatory here! A linguist talks about invented languages, from the philosophical language of Wilkins to languages intended for international communication and those just created for fun, including a lot of her own experiences studying them and talking to those
The subject matter was really interesting, and on the whole this was well-written, but at times the author didn't seem to be able to help herself from going into "but I'm not like these geeks, honest!" mode, which annoyed me a little.
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who studied or created them.The subject matter was really interesting, and on the whole this was well-written, but at times the author didn't seem to be able to help herself from going into "but I'm not like these geeks, honest!" mode, which annoyed me a little.
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LibraryThing member kslade
Very interesting study on invented languages, such as Esperanto, Tolkien's languages in his books, Klingon, etc. Fun and compelling. Makes you want to learn some to get the mind-expanding experience that some people have.