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Encountering Conlangs Feature Encountering conlangs Encountering conlangs Deak Kirkham investigates the intriguing phenomenon of constructed languages. 10 Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 Feature Encountering conlangs ere’s a linguistic brain- language in the context of the Spanish teaser: which of the nation as constituted at the time of following language writing – but this is also not the reason... extracts is the odd one Instead, of the five, Euskara is the out? only language which is not a constructed language, or conlang. The others in top- H1. bortaS bIr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’. to-bottom order are: Klingon (from the 2. Euskara Euskal Herriko hizkuntza American TV and film series Star Trek), da. Láadan (constructed by the poet-author- 3. bóo wil di le neth. linguist Dr Suzette Hayden Elgin for her 4. En la mondo venis nova sento. science fiction novel Native Tongue), 5. xu do se jbobau. Esperanto (the constructed language of Polish polymath L. L. Zamenhof), Not an easy one, perhaps. One or two and Lojban (a logical language based on of the extracts may seem familiar to a few predicate logic with the aim of removing readers; others, I suspect, are less familiar. ambiguity from communication). This This being an odd-one-out game, any one article surveys these languages and could of course be the metaphorical black scrutinises the phenomenon of conlangs, sheep; however, for the purposes of this looking at the different types, possible article, the odd one out is number 2, an definitions, the example of Esperanto, and example of Euskara (Basque), the language conlangs’ value for the language sciences of the Euskaldunak (the Basque people). and language education. Basque is a language isolate – but that is Let’s begin with a more in-depth look not the reason. Basque is also a minority at each of the five languages above: Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 11 Feature Encountering conlangs 1. Klingon was initially constructed by Dr Marc Okrand for the 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Okrand is also the creator of the Atlantean language for Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire: bortaS bIr jablu’DI’, reH QaQqu’ nay’ When cold revenge dish ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’ (an ‘old' Klingon proverb) 2. Euskara (Basque) is not a constructed language: Euskara Euskal Herriko hizkuntza da Basque Basque people-POSS language is ‘Basque is the language of the Basque people’ (the opening sentence of the Euskara Wikipedia article on Euskara) 3. Láadan was constructed by Dr Suzette Haden Elgin to test hypotheses concerning the relationship between language and thought, and as a language in her Native Tongue science fiction series: Bóo wil di le neth Hypothetical-marker request-marker speak/say I you-OBJ ‘I would like to speak with you please’ 4. Esperanto was constructed by L. L. Zamenhof and made public in 1887: En la monda venis nova sento In the world come.PAST new feeling/sentiment ‘A new sensation has come into the word’ / ‘There is a new sensation in the world’ (the first line of the Esperanto Anthem La Espero) 5. Lojban was constructed by the Logical Language Group from 1987 onwards: xu do se jbobau Is-it-true-that you is-a speak-of-Lojban ‘Do you speak Lojban?’ (taken from the Wikipedia article on logban) Definitions and types courting controversy and might also note that borrowings So what are constructed plunging into profound linguistic into other languages can be languages? A partial answer questions. considered artificial, and that lies in the term itself: they For example, is it fair to say certain registers of national/ are languages that have been that conlangs are artificial, or ethnic languages are constructs ‘constructed’. But what does that they are in some sense (does anyone actually speak that mean? ‘Constructed’ is a ‘not natural’? Many devotees ‘Standard English’?). Finally, they close synonym to ‘created’: these of the conlangs movement may note that certain ethnic/ languages are the conscious (‘conlangers’, as they are known) national languages themselves, creative output of one person object to this terminology. They such as modern Hebrew and (or a small group of people), and make the point that conlangs Cornish, have a degree of in that sense at least they differ carry the same powers of artificiality about them. In from English, Japanese or Xhosa, expression as ethnic/national this sense, even contemporary which have no ‘creator’, or even languages in terms of their international English can be an identifiable beginning. As ability to convey thought, and seen as artificial: the product part of its constructed nature, a that writing can also be seen of an Old English grammatical conlang typically has a purpose: as an artificial cultural artefact base modified by contact they can be seen as genetically (as opposed to a ‘natural’ form with Norse and then further modified (or enhanced) of oral communication), yet modified grammatically, and languages. Beyond that, however, is nevertheless studied and infused lexically, by contact with it is hard to say more without taught as part of language. They Norman French. All languages 12 Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 Feature Encountering conlangs therefore can be argued to have Abbreviation Full form Examples an artificial, constructed element to them; perhaps conlangs Auxlang International These languages, also known as ‘planned’ simply compress ‘natural’ Auxiliary Language languages, aspire to facilitate cross-linguistic processes into the mind of a (IAL) communication, often through a formal single language creator? system which is claimed to be easier to learn. Conlangs also face the Esperanto is the most widely used. accusation that they lack a culture, nation or literature. Indeed, it was this sense of the Englang Engineered Englangs reflect the attempt to integrate need for a language to have a (engelang/ language some ideal, (philosophical, logical or culture and history that led one engilang) linguistic) into a language. For example, particular conlang creator, John Lojban reflects principles of predicate logic Ronald Reuel Tolkien, to begin and Suzette Haden Elgin constructed Láadan creating peoples and myths for with the aim of testing the Sapir-Whorf the conlangs he had begun to hypothesis in relation to putative female- construct as a teenager in the specific thinking and concerns. early 1900s, resulting in the Lord of the Rings and the less well- Fictlang/altlang Fictional language/ Fictlangs are created for fictional (often known Silmarillion, Unfinished alternative fantasy or sci-fi) settings and include Tales and the Children of Hurin, language Dothakri (from HBO’s Games of Thrones), in which much of the backstory Klingon (Star Trek), Atlantean (Atlantis: The can be found. This is one type of Lost Empire), Na’vi (Avatar) and Tolkien’s ‘social context’ for a language, Elvish Languages but it is hardly a real world community (although there are a Playlang/ Privlang Play language/ Privlangs cover at least two phenomena: number of speakers of Tolkien’s Private language the rare case of cryptophasia, such as the languages). However, some case of June and Jennifer Gibbons, twins conlangs have made it in the real who developed a language only they could world, the most impressive of understand, and entirely individual languages which is Esperanto. The question intended for self-communication. Examples then arises: does a conlang need include Milwauke resident Robert Ben a community of speakers to be a Madison’s Talossan , author Robert Dessaix’s full language, and if so, how big K, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s initial language does the community need to be? creation work which gradually morphed into These are far from the only his fictlangs. questions raised by the conlangs phenomenon. One might ask where they stand in relation Of course, any typology A meander into Esperanto to other ‘non-core’ forms of oversimplifies. Láadan for Esperanto could be claimed to language such as pidgins and example is both an englang be the most widely used, and creoles, second language learner (a feminist conlang with a most impactful, of the conlangs. interlanguages, or argots. Or one particular perspective on female- Chronologically, it is not the first might wonder why they exist at specific communication) and a of the major auxlangs: Volapuk all. Such questions lie beyond fictlang (as part of its creator’s predates it by a few years, and this article, but before moving science fiction writing). More the Bishop of Chester John on let us conclude this section generally, it can be argued that all Wilkins’ ‘Philosophical Language’ with a short taxonomy of types auxlangs have some engineered (published in 1668) predates it by of conlangs, which tend to be element to them. However, such more than 200 years. However, abbreviated on the model of distinctions are meaningful it has grown to become the most computer languages. and help to bring a certain widely used and most richly conceptual order to conlangs. institutionalised of the auxlangs, beating even later twentieth century conlangs such as Interlingua. As such, Esperanto Babel The Language Magazine | February 2017 13 Feature Encountering conlangs poses a social history problem: What are the uses of conlangs? why did this particular conlang Ĝis nun, tiel bona (‘so far, so triumph over its competitors? A good’). But why – what is similar question arises when we the point of these conlangs, consider the relative failure of and what do they do? More Esperanto in comparison to its fundamentally, why do they creator’s ambitions: it has not exist, and why can’t people be become the world’s lingua franca, content with their own national/ nor does it seem to have any real ethnic languages? chance of becoming so. Cynics may say that fictlangs Esperanto was on the table exist to make money, and it is as a possible language for use not easy to dispute the view that by the League of Nations (the fictlangs can generate a lot of forerunner of the UN), before profits: the revenue figures of the proposal was vetoed by the Game of Thrones and Avatar French delegate.
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