In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language by Arika Okrent
“Requests for information on Esperanto will be answered with a form letter prepared by the Library Director. There is no Esperanto library in Middleton.” -- Middleton Public Library Reference Services Policy
The first Esperanto grammar, published in 1887, introduced what was meant to be a universal language to help bridge international differences. In the just over five years I have worked here, I’ve only had to field one inquiry about Middleton’s no-longer-in-existence Esperanto library, but it stuck in my memory and it’s one of the reasons I picked up Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages. (The other reason was for the coverage of Klingon. Hey, you have to admit that when a language invented for a fictional race becomes a language in which non-fictional wedding ceremonies are performed, it’s an interesting phenomenon, right?) This fascinating book is not just about how Esperanto, Klingon, and other deliberately designed languages were developed and received by the world, but also about what they can teach us about the illogical, difficult, naturally evolving languages the vast majority of us speak.
If you’re still not convinced this book is worth reading, consider this excerpt from Chapter 26: “One of the most popular presentations was by Don Boozer, a librarian at the Cleveland Public Library. His language, Dritok, was born when he began to wonder if it was possible to make a language out of chipmunk noises.” --Sarah
“Requests for information on Esperanto will be answered with a form letter prepared by the Library Director. There is no Esperanto library in Middleton.” -- Middleton Public Library Reference Services Policy
The first Esperanto grammar, published in 1887, introduced what was meant to be a universal language to help bridge international differences. In the just over five years I have worked here, I’ve only had to field one inquiry about Middleton’s no-longer-in-existence Esperanto library, but it stuck in my memory and it’s one of the reasons I picked up Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages. (The other reason was for the coverage of Klingon. Hey, you have to admit that when a language invented for a fictional race becomes a language in which non-fictional wedding ceremonies are performed, it’s an interesting phenomenon, right?) This fascinating book is not just about how Esperanto, Klingon, and other deliberately designed languages were developed and received by the world, but also about what they can teach us about the illogical, difficult, naturally evolving languages the vast majority of us speak.
If you’re still not convinced this book is worth reading, consider this excerpt from Chapter 26: “One of the most popular presentations was by Don Boozer, a librarian at the Cleveland Public Library. His language, Dritok, was born when he began to wonder if it was possible to make a language out of chipmunk noises.” --Sarah
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2 comments:
Hi! Great blog, and thanks for all the great reviews. But could you please fix the "contributers" heading along the side to "contributors"? I know I'm too picky on spelling but I can't help it.
Not at ALL picky! I'm blushing that I didn't catch it myself (esp. since I'm the one who spelled it wrong initially). Thanks for catching it & thanks for checking out the blog!
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