3 Comments for In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language

• 1. Kylee  |  November 18th, 2009 at 4:46 am

  As someone who is interested in constructed languages (I have a reasonable knowledge of Esperanto, Volapuk, and Ido, and have looked at others such as Lojban and Glosa) I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed this book.

  Most books on constructed languages just give a historical overview of the subject, mentioning highlights such as Wilkins’ Real Character, Volapuk, and Esperanto, and then end with the conclusion (comforting to anglophones) that the global success of English in the 20th century makes the whole issue of international communication moot (I wonder what the anglophones will think when Chinese or whatever displaces English?).

  Okrent’s book is somewhat different. While she does give the standard historical overview, her focus is on modern conlangs that have user communities and hold conferences. She has apparently learned at least the basics of Esperanto, Lojban, and Klingon and has attended relevant conferences. She dispells the stereotype of conlangers being “weirdos” — even the Klingon speakers seem less geeky than one would expect.

• 2. Xiuhcoatl  |  November 18th, 2009 at 6:11 am

  Linguists have their ideas. Many of them look down at what’s often called “artificial languages” (actually all normalized languages are more or less artificial, including the Queen’s English, and written languages definitively so – there are no letters in nature).

  Arika Okrent doesn’t.

  She started out with the prejudiced idea that planned languages can’t be living tongues, but after some research, including visits to Esperanto congresses and Klingon conventions, she had to admit that yes, they can. At least Esperanto doesn’t even behave as a Golem or Frankenstein’s monster; just like any language, but easier than most to learn.

  She has concentrated at a few high-lights of the more than nine hundred projects she has found: Wilkins’ logical language from the 17th century, Esperanto from the 19th but still very much in use, and from the 20th Bliss’ symbolical language (with a few details about the character of its creator that made me feel rather bad), Logban and its offshoot Lojban as more a less a return to Wilkins’ ideas of a perfectly logical language, and finally Klingon.

  She is rather short about languages with similar goals as Esperanto, like Volapük that was defeated by it, or Ido and Interlingua which failed to defeat it. She is also rather short about the languages connected to Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, allthough at least Sindarin may actually have about as many fans as Klingon. (Unlike Esperanto, neither Sindarin nor Klingon was created to be actually used, but fans have their ideas.)

  In the list of 500 “invented languages” at the end of the book she includes Anglic, which actually is just ordinary English with a revised spelling, not a language in its own righ (she might have included Shaw’s spelling ideas as well), and Basic English, which also is hardly a language of its own – just plain English with a limited word-stock.

  Last not least: she has a sense of humour.

• 3. Victorin  |  November 18th, 2009 at 7:29 am

  In the Land of Invented Languages is an amazing work of linguistic lore, representing the very best of popular science, packaged as erudite travel writing. True to its title, In the Land takes us around the globe in a quest for the perfect language. Not only is one invited (even if, like me, you are not a linguistics scholar and only speak one language…) to actually participate in the theory, math and utter zaniness of communication, but we’re privileged by way of Okrent’s deft hand to explore each language land through the eyes of a native. Therein lies the true joy of this journey – Okrent is a great wit and intellect; the very best of travel companions. My bags are packed for the next trip.

  (I originally purchased the Kindle edition only to discover that another delight of Okrent’s work is the design of the book itself. It offers time-lines, language symbols and even a `tree of the universe’ that cannot be fully appreciated with the electronic version. I recommend buying the hardback – which I did half way through.)

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