In the Land of Invented Languages
by Arika Okrent · first published 2009
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Entertaining, easy non-technical tour of invented languages from Esperanto and Lojban to Klingon and Blissymbols, with stories of the eccentric creators. Suits anyone curious about conlangs and why they fail.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 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 Languages, author A
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Anyone interested in this would probably enjoy In the Land of Invented Languages[1]. It covers not only Volapük, but many other artificial languages, from Esperanto to Klingon. [1] - https://www.amazon.com/Land-Invented-Languages-Adventures-Li...
on “Trüth, Beaüty, and Volapük (2012)” ↗…illustrates perfectly that logic is not the most important feature of a language (since no one wants to, or perhaps even can, learn it to fluency). Arika Okrent deals with this in her (truly excellent) book In The Land Of Invented Languages.
on “Lojban - The Logical Language” ↗If you like this, you should read In The Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent. Aside from the being the best non-fiction book I've ever read, it talks about Lojban and characteristics of invented languages that make them suitable for becoming a universal language.…
on “Lojban: A constructed language, grammatically based on Predicate Calculus” ↗…linguists. It's word selection was highly methodical (http://www.unish.net/introduce/e_unish_Word.jsp) unlike most invented languages which are based on the personal tastes of the inventor. Check out the book In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent for a fun and interesting look at the whole topic.
on “Loglan – a predicate logic-based language for humans” ↗For those into this kind of thing, Arika Okrent's "In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language" has a chapter on Blissymbols and is just about the best non-fiction book I've ever read.
on “Blissymbols” ↗…Klingon, Lojban, toki pona, Dothraki, and so on. Esperanto and modern Hebrew (to some extent) are also more practical examples of this art. For a more elaborate insight into this hobby, there is the book “In the Land of Invented Languages” by Arika Okrent. [0]: https://www.suberic.net/~dmm/rikchik/rikchik.html [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secret_Vice
on “Ithkuil IV Language FAQ” ↗In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent is great.
on “The Art of Hollywood’s Made-Up Languages, from Dothraki to Klingon [video]” ↗Anyone interested in this subject would do well to read "In the Land of Invented Languages".[1] [1] - http://www.amazon.com/Land-Invented-Languages-Adventures-Lin...
on “Speaking in Tongues: From Elvish to Dothraki, the rise of invented languages” ↗>It's funny, with so many brilliant minds continuously rewriting coding languages no one has stopped to make human language less of a symantic ambiguity. People have tried. Check out "In The Land of Invented Languages" [0] if this interests you. Specific to your point, I would refer you to Lojban (a derivative of Loglan). [0]http://www.amazon.com/Land-Invented-Languages-Adventures-Lin...
on “Negative Impact of English on Math Learning” ↗People interested in this topic will enjoy the book "In the Land of Invented Languages" by Akira Okrent [1]. It's an easy non-technical read. [1]http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com/
on “Inventing a whole language” ↗If you want to take your interest further, you can venture into the world of constructed languages, which is basically applied linguistics. Arika Okrent's In the Land of Invented Languages is a great book about conlangs in general, and David Peterson's The Art of Invented Languages focuses on conlangs in movies and TV.
on “Top 5 Fascinating Books on Languages and Linguistics” ↗The author, Arika Okrent, wrote a book called "In the Land of Invented Languages", which is a hoot.
on “On the disappearing antonyms of “grumpy” words” ↗…"Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages"by Guy Deutscher "Imaginary Languages: Myths, Utopias, Fantasies, Illusions, and Linguistic Fictions" Marina Yaguello "In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius" by Arika Okrent "The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves to Sand Worms, the Words Behind World-Building" by David Peterson **…
on “Ask HN: Interesting courses/books to counter a looming burnout?” ↗…Introduction to Esoteric Programming Languages' : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27206055 [6] : "Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages"by Guy Deutscher [7] : "In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius" by Arika Okrent
on “Ask HN: Interesting courses/books to counter a looming burnout?” ↗…was a product of its time. Nowadays, with the status of English, and the availability of machine translation, an IAL is just less important than it once was. On a positive note: I recommend the book “In the Land of Invented Languages” by Arika Okrent for a history of conlangs. As a shibboleth, here is a sample of my own shitty conlang, whose design I will not attempt to defend: anu, ʃamuti usli bisini uma kamlusu slapluŋwu ixla…
on “Esperanto, Toki Pona, Swahili, Indonesian” ↗