A short, non-technical look at a few of the most well-documented artifical languages, this book explores the motivations of language creators, as well as those who choose to learn and form communities based around the use of an invented language.
Good for: Anyone interested in auxiliary or artificial languages, philosophy of language or the social aspect of an invented language.
Not so good for: People looking for practical advice on creating your own language, Klingon ultra-nationalists?
Verdict: It is hard to find fault with Arika Okrent's amusing and well written book on various languages which have been purposefully designed. She takes a very big picture view which may not satisfy those looking for nitty-gritty details of how the languages work or were put together, but in all this is a quick read that should give linguists, philosophers and language people alike something to think about.
In the first appendix of this book, Okrent provides a list of 500 constructed languages, although she notes that this list is far from exhaustive. The book itself, however, focuses on six: John Wilkin's "Philosophic Language," Esperanto, Blisssymbolics, Loglan/Loljban, Láadan and Klingon.
The main focus of the book is not how each of these languages works, per se, but how they fit into the social and philosophical context of their day. That is, this is not necessarily a book about how languages are invented, but why. Okrent presents the languages above as examples of different eras of language creation, taking us from the Enlightenment's languages of Truth, to the International language movements of the nineteenth century, through the psychological languages of the early twentieth and the artistic conlangs of the late twentieth century and today.
Part linguist and part journalist, Okrent infuses these "artificial" languages with the very human stories behind their designs, successes and failures. This book is a perfect counter weight to the type of linguistic grammars that often exclude the human element of communication.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
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I've enjoyed Arika Okrent's book. Esperanto is more widespread than most outsiders perceive.
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