In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect LanguageHere is the captivating story of humankind’s enduring quest to build a better language—and overcome the curse of Babel. 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. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, Loglan (not to be confused with Lojban), 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. With intelligence and humor, Arika Okrent has written a truly original and enlightening book for all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 10 | |
| 19 | |
The SixHundredPage Rewrite | 21 |
A Calculus of Thought | 26 |
A Hierarchy of the Universe | 38 |
The Word for Shit | 51 |
The Spacemen Speak | 173 |
The Catastrophic Results of Her Ignorance | 183 |
James Cooke Brown and the Language of Logic | 197 |
The Whorfian Hypothesis | 199 |
A Formula for Success | 208 |
Suitable Apologies | 215 |
Meaning Quicksand | 231 |
To Menstruate Joyfully | 241 |
Knowing What You Mean to Say | 58 |
Ludwik Zamenhof and the Language of Peace | 77 |
A Linguistic Handshake | 79 |
Un Nuov Glot | 86 |
Trouble in Volapükland | 94 |
A Nudist a Gay Ornithologist a Railroad Enthusiast and a Punk Cannabis Smoker Walk into a Bar | 110 |
Crank Pride | 124 |
Charles Bliss and the Language of Symbols | 133 |
Word Magic | 135 |
Hit by a Personality Tornado | 151 |
Those Queer and Mysterious Chinese Characters | 160 |
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In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets ... Arika Okrent No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
asked Babm Basic English began Ben-Yehuda Bliss Blissymbolics Brown called characters Chinese concepts congress conlang culture Dalgarno dictionary Esperantists Esperanto Esperantoland example express feel fiction French German Gestuno grammar guage guess Hebrew idea Idiom Neutral Interlingua international language invented languages J. R. R. Tolkien JAMES COOKE BROWN kind Klingon Language Klingon Language Institute Klingon speakers Láadan language inventors Latin letter Lingua linguistic logical Loglan Loglanist Lojban Lojbanists look Marc Okrand McNaughton meaning Molee natural languages never Nora Okrand Pasigraphie philosophical language projects pseud published roots scientific sense sentence shit sign languages Sindarin Solresol someone sound speak spoken Star Trek story subcategory symbols talk teachers tell things thought tion told took translation understand universal language Universalglot verb vocabulary Volapük wanted Weilgart Whorfian Wilkins Wilkins's words writing wrote Zamenhof