FREE IN THE LAND OF INVENTED PDF

Arika Okrent | 342 pages | 11 May 2010 | Random House USA Inc | 9780812980899 | English | New York, United States 'In the Land of Invented Languages'

Arika Okrent. ISBN Its original subtitle changed to Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius in the paperback editionwacky artwork, and endorsement reviews make it clear that ILIL is intended to provide a cheeky look at a quirky subject, and in that respect, at least, it fully delivers. Written in the first-person, ILIL offers a combination of anecdotes, research, and assessments, loosely arranged and presented as a single line of inquiry. Through twenty-six chapters, ILIL considers the phenomenon of deliberate creation, especially the creation of languages intended to improve upon natural ones. The appendices to ILIL list some five hundred such languages and their designers, as well as a small number of sample passages and resources. For the most part, however, ILIL is dedicated to exploring only six of them, and the emphasis of its treatment is on the humorously tragic. The choice seems calculated, as the innermost chapters reveal she is actually more studied and proficient in . ILIL ends with Okrent realizing she has a kind of sympathy for conlangers, but it sounds apologetic, and more than a little In the Land of Invented Languages by the expertise she witnesses at a In the Land of Invented Languages creation conference in Though the casual attitude of ILIL provides much insurance against serious criticism, there are still areas where the book may be considered flawed. The result is something more cannibalistic than informative, especially with its constant emphasis on the social awkwardness of the people involved. Just when ILIL is poised to establish a truly interesting In the Land of Invented Languages for its analyses, such as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in Chapter 18, it reverts to cheek—as if, so to speak, to save face. The author would have found a better denominator in Revived Cornish, whose movement is replete with the sort of schismatic infighting ILIL most enjoys. There is also the language, reportedly revealed by an angel to and in and used In the Land of Invented Languages occult purposes since. ILIL does not mention them. The inventedness of natural languages is also overlooked consider standardization, neologism, and terminology, as well as the influences of poetic usage and translation. Though ILIL claims that artistic including fictional-world conlangs represent the final phase of the invented language movement, its treatment is a mere postscript to the rest of the book, and includes no theoretical content. No attention is given to the massive and longstanding scholarly tradition separating interest in the languages of Middle-earth from the Star Trek fandom that upholds Klingon, nor does ILIL touch upon any of the reasons why conlangs have become an indispensable feature of secondary worlds. News Etc. News Overview News Archive Reviews. Mythcon Mythcon Overview Current Mythcon. Content copyright The Mythopoeic Society All rights reserved. The Mythopoeic Society Reviews: In the Land of Invented Languages

Goodreads helps In the Land of Invented Languages keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Just about everyone has heard of Esperanto, which was nothing less than one man's attempt to bring about world peace by means of linguistic solidarity. And every Star Trek fan knows about Klingon, which was nothing more than a television show's attempt to create a tough-sounding language befitting a warrior race with ridged foreheads. But few people have heard of , Bli Just about everyone has heard of Esperanto, which was nothing less than one man's attempt to bring about world peace by means of linguistic solidarity. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages that represent the hard work, high hopes, and full-blown delusions of so many misguided souls over the centuries. In In The Land of Invented Languagesauthor Arika 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 , say your wedding vows in , and read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in . A truly original new addition to the booming category of language books, In The Land of Invented Languages will be a must-have on the shelves of all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions 8. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about In the Land of Invented Languagesplease sign up. Does this book pay any attention to invented by Tolkien? Daniel M. And some insight about Tolkein is also given Does it mention ? See all 3 questions about In the Land of Invented Languages…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jun 09, David rated it really liked it Shelves: words-and-languageread-in Initially this book was fairly amusing, but somewhere around the half-way mark its charms began to fade, and by the end it was just plain exhausting. This was certainly not the fault of the author, who was an engaged and enthusiastic tour guide throughout. But ultimately the cumulative craziness of the various language inventors takes its toll. Okrent's tour of the "land of invented languages" covers a lot of ground, making five major stops, each of which considers a particular example In the Land of Invented Languages depth: Initially this book was fairly In the Land of Invented Languages, but somewhere around the half-way mark its charms began to fade, and by the end it was just plain exhausting. Okrent's tour of the "land of invented languages" covers a lot of ground, making five major stops, each of which considers a particular example in depth: John Wilkins's "philosophical language" Ludwik Zamenhof's Esperanto Charles Bliss's symbolic language, "Semantography" James Cooke Brown's language of logic, "Loglan" Marc Okrand's Klingon A major strength of the book is Okrent's ability to place each of these particular invented languages within its historical context. She also manages to convey the essential flavor of each language in a style which is not overburdened with linguistic technicalities, and with a refreshing sense of humor throughout. Her tolerance for the sheer weirdness that permeates the various personalities she encounters along the way ultimately exceeds mine. In the Land of Invented Languages had a certain grudging admiration for John Wilkins's noble attempt to categorize everything in the universe, as well as for the idealism displayed by proponents of Esperanto. But the monomania of Bliss and Brown, their protracted legal wranglings in defence of their weirdly idosyncratic creations made for depressing reading. And, though I share a certain geekiness where language is concerned, it doesn't really extend In the Land of Invented Languages enough to make me find the development of Klingon and the antics of those who "speak" it anything other than tedious. So, I think this book would have 5-star appeal only to someone far geekier than I. Nonetheless, it is an impressive and entertaining accomplishment. The author is to be congratulated. View 1 comment. I think I would really enjoy sitting down for a cup of coffee and a discussion with this author! She is a linguist and linguistics is a favourite subject of mine. Plus, she is In the Land of Invented Languages interested in words and their history and in the psychology of people who strive to build better languages. I was absolutely gobsm I think I would really enjoy sitting down for a cup of coffee and a discussion with this author! Mostly, the creators seems to be altruists—Esperanto was going to be the language that allowed us all to understand one another and prevent future wars. One of the best uses of language is politicking! Their rigid attempts to control the people using their languages seemed to negate any positive uses for their creations. I loved that in her author note at the end of the volume, she listed both PhDs and her Klingon 1st level pin as her accomplishments. What I found a bit freaky: I returned to work on Monday having read the book on the weekend and the very first volume that I picked up to catalogue was written in Esperanto! Wells and am busy with translations right now. That little piece of synchronicity was amusing. View all 4 comments. Nov 08, Emily rated it it was amazing Shelves: In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent is a book ostensibly about invented languages like Esperanto that is filled with love for the beauty and inventiveness of natural languages. Okrent gives us the tour we'd expect of funny invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon she even attends a Klingon convention. She has sport with many of the creations. I can't help throwing in another example here. But the book is much smarter than this. It gives a history of invented languages in a historical In the Land of Invented Languages, showing how the form and function of the languages fit in with the scientific or linguistic fads In the Land of Invented Languages the time. In the 17th century, scholars were just discovering the power of mathematical notations to reveal concrete truths and permit international debate. Many became convinced that nonmathematical concepts could be expressed in similar ways, resulting in a language where every concept had to be looked up and its meaning made precise, through a table, and then all the concepts jammed together into an unreadable "sentence. In the late 19th century, scholars were mesmerized by the idea of Proto-Indo-European as an ancestor of most European languages and wanted to create easy-to-learn languages that drew on those commonalities--of which Esperanto was the most successful among hundreds of attempts. In the s, some people wanted to have a human language with precision and unambiguity of computer languages, which led to Loglan. As Okrent goes through these examples, she is really giving us a history of what people think their languages should be. The attempts at invented languages could be roughly said to progress from systems that are very unnatural unspeakable assemblages of numbers or letters to systems In the Land of Invented Languages seek to combine all of the inventor's favorite In the Land of Invented Languages of natural languages. For example, one language created by a feminist fantasy author includes words like " radiidin: non-holiday, a time allegedly a holiday but actually so much a burden because of work and preparations that it is a dreaded occasion" and requires a syntactic structure "indicating the speech act being performed statement, question, command, request, promise, warning. This is simultaneously a quirky book about silly languages, a respectful book about language communities, and an informative book about linguistics--much more than I expected it to be. Whatever happened to Esperanto -- is it still ticking? Here's the low-down on invented languages, starting with the mystical Seventeeth and enlightened Eighteen centuries, when serious attempts were made not only to name BUT TO ORDER every word out there in wholly new languages that would be not only rational but would unpack our now we know unpackable universe. Then came the One Worlders: the rise of nationalism in the Nineteenth Century provoked a rea Whatever happened to Esperanto -- is it still ticking? Those movements generally went into decline after the Second World War. A lot more is going on and new invented languages are popping up all the time, though often, as with the "Blissymbol" system, they find uses other In the Land of Invented Languages pure communication. Blessedly, author Akira Okrent knows just when to stop shy of entering the realm of computer languages, so if you're looking for a taste of Fortran, Cobal or Linux, go elsewhere. A recurring theme in this insightful work is that no perfect language can be obtained because by the time one can be compiled, the social uses of it change and prompt either schisms or evolutions in the invented language. Esperanto itself is an example of a created language refusing to remain static, as younger speakers casually drop the "n" accusative ending of nouns much as English-speakers commonly dismiss with terminal "g" from our words, and slang expressions and colorful idioms continue to bloom and grow. You can probably see that I enjoyed Akira Okrent's book very much. If you like books about language, you probably will too. View all 3 comments. Feb 19, Julie rated it it was amazing Shelves: languagesnonfiction. 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 In the Land of Invented Languages seems to jump about in time here and there, which can be confusing. And there is some 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 ha The author looks at the history of invention surrounding well, invented languages. In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent: | : Books

In the movie "Frankenstein," the mad Dr. Henry Frankenstein played by French-born actor Colin Clive electrifies the collage of human body parts that was his "monster. It's ali-ha-hive. I have always thought of people who tried to invent languages as about as sane and practical as the mad scientists in the movies who try to create life. Less self-destructive, perhaps. Presumably, no group of fear-crazed villagers will come to burn down your castle because they are afraid of your verb structure. But I had missed the real interest behind created languages - what they have to tell us about the evolved communication systems, natural languages, that all humans speak. In her new book, "In the Land of Invented Languages," Arika Okrent enlivens the enterprise of language invention and takes the reader on an illuminating and highly entertaining tour of human folly and brilliance, pointing out at various places the shortcomings of both natural and invented languages as communicative systems. Okrent constructs her narrative around her own efforts to learn some of these languages, proudly showcasing her success at learning Klingon, the language of a threatening group of aliens on "Star Trek" a series I thought was ridiculous in its prime and think so even more strongly now while it infects TV sets with its eternal reruns. In discussing the origin of these languages, Okrent skillfully explicates the linguistic issues and problems that lead some misguided people to try to invent languages. There seem to be two major principles that motivate linguistic Frankensteins, aside from delusions of wealth In the Land of Invented Languages fame. The first is the desire to create a purely logical language. The second is the idea that one can have a language removed from the socioeconomic and political baggage of natural languages especially appealing to those who In the Land of Invented Languages the international influence of English. The In the Land of Invented Languages of so-called logical languages is driven by the desire to avoid the apparently pernicious effects of language on thought. Because language is seen by many as inseparable In the Land of Invented Languages culture, there are those who, following ideas associated with amateur linguist Benjamin Whorf but in reality much older, going back to early Enlightenment philosophy in Germany In the Land of Invented Languages Franceworry that we are unable to think beyond the bounds of our language, that it holds our cognitive processes in its tyrannical grip. They seem to believe that we need to break free of our native tongue in order to think freely, without the pressure of its accumulated cultural detritus. It is amusing on the one hand that people who invent language in order to liberate themselves from their own language do not find it inconsistent that their own language is the medium by which they construct the new language. By their own logic, however, their own language's influence on their created language is thereby inescapable. In the Land of Invented Languages it is clear that their original, native language does not keep them so pressed in its grip that they are unable to invent or discuss new concepts in the first place. In fact, science would not be possible if Whorf and these inventors of logical languages were completely correct - for science is in large part discovering concepts for which we previously had no words. When we do discover such concepts, we can name them quite easily "quarks" is my favorite example. Thus all of these languages, including Loglan, are conceived in a state of illogic because they are based on languages that permit them to do what they claim that these languages do not allow them to do. Another suggested advantage of invented languages is that they can be so constructed as to lack ambiguity. This claim has even been made for some natural languages. InIn the Land of Invented Languages New York Times interviewed me about the claim that the Bolivian language Aymara was a perfectly logical language, lacking ambiguity altogether. My response then was that any language that lacked ambiguity was not a full human language. Ambiguity has an important role to play in the law, humor, literature, sermons and in the gamut of personal relations. A language without it simply lacks the richness of a human language. I doubt seriously that Aymara or any other language lacks it. Languages invented to lack it remind me of the joke where one man says, "I am a self-made man" and another replies, "This is the result of unskilled labor. Okrent herself shows more subtly and humorously the In the Land of Invented Languages of so-called logical languages by looking in vain for how to say a common four-letter word in them. Profanity is vital to human expression, and a language without it is not a human language - at least not a very good one. The In the Land of Invented Languages reason to invent a language is to make a social statement. Some lingual inventors desire a language that avoids the undue influence of one culture or group of people. Others seek to develop a language that more effectively expresses the feelings or aspirations of some downtrodden group. Esperanto falls into the first category, so far as I have been able to tell. Although Okrent discusses Esperanto engagingly in the book, nothing in what she says or elsewhere convinces me that Esperanto is anything more than an ill-conceived anti-English movement. Still, I realized that I knew very little about either its development or its emotional hold on some of its speakers until I read Okrent's chapters about it. The chapter titled "To Menstruate Joyfully" is one of my favorites. In this language, many concepts that express feminine states are expressed as but a single word, where several words would be used in most other languages. It's humorous, intelligent, entertaining and highly informative. And it's a great source of knowledge about human languages and why they exasperate some people - because they are not perfect. But neither are we. Top shopping picks.