Major Announcement
LCS is hiring a conlanger to create a new artisitic language for a major TV studio! For all the details go to conlang.org/jobs.
New Addition to TCL
Yet another new addition to TCL: There is now a new page on the conlang exhibit that appeared at Cleveland Public Library in 2008. In addition to information on how the exhibit came about and what’s going on with it now, a slideshow (from the Flickr-posted photos of the exhibit) is now available embedded on the page.
(Slightly) New Look
The Conlanger’s Library Homepage has received a slightly new look. Being a sub-domain of the Language Creation Society (LCS), I felt it was appropriate to provide a more visible connection with the society’s page. Therefore, you’ll see a new “disclaimer” and the LCS logo proudly displayed front-and-center.
An even bigger change took place in the About pages. The Who Did This? page has finally been filled in. Turn there to learn more about me. I’ve also brought Arcimboldo’s painting into the About pages as well.
A Top Ten List
A new Wired article has been posted to the Magazine section of The Conlanger’s Library (to make up for the one from 1996 posted earlier). This one is entitled “Top Ten Geekiest Constructed Languages.” As with any top ten list, this one has some interesting comments about others’ nominations for geekiest. The consensus (by several) seems to be Lojban. That’s not my opinion…just the posters’ on Wired.
New Additions to TCL
Several new additions to TCL have been posted in Quotations and Articles.
Some quotations from Charles Darwin are now up in the Language section in honor of The Year of Darwin. There’s also a nice quote from poet Tim Seibles from his poem “Latin” which appears in Hammerlock.
The newest Magazine article isn’t new, but, if you haven’t seen it before, Wired had an article by Gavin Edwards in 1996 with a Klingon title and a subtitle of “Whether Klingon or Esperanto or C, articial languages exert a powerful hold over the human imagination”. See the link in TCL‘s Magazine section.
Drogön Chögyal Phagpa added to TLC
A new image and information has been added to the Writing Systems page of the Internet resources at The Conlanger’s Library. The new image you’ll see is of a Tibetan lama. Click on it to find out what he’s doing at the TCL.
English…mugging other languages
Okay, so it’s not conlanging, but this quote has stuck with me since I saw it on a t-shirt at Tekkoshocon several years ago:
“Not only does the English Language borrow words from other languages, it sometimes chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the head, and goes through their pocketsâ€
Today, I remembered it again and decided to see if I could find a source. Turns out there’s several attributions. Many sites on the Internet attribute it to an Eddy Peters. For example, here, here, and here. “Eddy Peters” has no books in WorldCat and some sites give the quote as anonymous.
In digging around some more, I finally came across this posting by the author of the quote and this posting on the Linguist List providing even more background. And, so here is the original quote from James D. Nicoll:
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
Personally, I like that better than the one attributed to Eddy Peters. I suppose the connection to conlangs is that conlangers, like the English language, liberate words, grammar, cases, and the flotsam and jetsam of language to acquire inspiration for their works. But (whereas English is characterized as a mugger in Mr. Nicoll’s), conlangers may be thought of as well-meaning pirates of the high seas of language. (And, pirates like Disney’s Jack Sparrow or Blackbeard…not nasty real-life pirates).
Conlangers Extraordinaire #2: Carsten Becker
Carsten Becker
This is the second in a series of tributes to conlangers extraordinaire:
Carsten Becker (also known as guitarplayer on ZBB), a native of Germany, started conlanging after reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and being amazed by “all the Quenya in there and the detail given to it.” He happened upon Mark Rosenfelder‘s Language Construction Kit while doing Internet searches for material on Tolkien’s languages. This was in 2002, and, in December 2003, Carsten began work on his conlang Ayeri after two previous abandoned attempts known as The Nameless Language and Daléian. Carsten states that “since then, Ayeri has been gradually growing, and my ultimate goal is to make it a comfortably usable (private) language — which I think is a common goal of many conlangers.” An in-depth Ayeri Coursebook was written in 2005 by Carsten and was made available on his website in a professional-looking PDF format. It included the three separate Ayeri writing systems as well as a full grammar and dictionary. Carsten is revising the Ayeri grammar to reflect changes made in the past few years and is planning on tackling the entire Coursebook next; however, information is readily available on the web at Tay Benung: The Ayeri Resource. The site includes a grammar, dictionary, texts, information on the scripts, and even recordings in Ayeri! Tay Benung is Ayeri for “The Web.”
In an interesting twist of fate, Carsten has translated The Language Construction Kit into German. This translation is available as Der Sprachbaukasten online.
(Photo courtesy of Carsten Becker and first appeared in the Conlang Exhibit of 2008. Quotes taken from an email to The Conlanging Librarian.)
Palantir, but not that palantir?
Conlanging intersected with “reality” the other day for me. In listening to National Public Radio, I heard about a company called Palantir Technologies. In the program, it was said explicitly that the company was “named for the all-seeing stones in the Lord of the Rings series, sells software that fuses vast amounts of disparate data together and then allows it to be searched for connections.” Curious about this use of one of Tolkien’s constructed words, I checked out Palantir Technologies website. Their legal notice actually contains this section:
7. TRADEMARKS AND TRADE NAMES
PALANTIR, graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the
trademarks and trade names of Palantir. Palantir’s trademarks and trade names may not be used, including as part of trademarks and/or as part of domain names, in connection with any product or service in any manner that is likely to cause confusion. Palantir Technologies is in no way affiliated with, or endorsed or sponsored by, The Saul Zaentz Company d.b.a. Tolkien Enterprises or the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien.
My question would be “Can they do this?” If PALANTIR is “in no way affiliated with, or endorsed or sponsored by, The Saul Zaentz Company d.b.a. Tolkien Enterprises or the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien,” how can they get away with using one of Tolkien’s words?? Wouldn’t this be like someone naming a company QAPLA’ Technologies and then saying “We are in no way affiliated with, or endorsed or sponsored by Paramount Pictures”??
Just makes the Conlanging Librarian go…hmmmm.
James A. Garfield?!
Yes, that James A. Garfield. I’m currently reading a biography of our 20th President. Why? First, he was born just a little over ten miles from where I live. Second, he was a fascinating individual and his Presidency (to me, at least) seems like it was a missed opportunity. “But what does he have to do with conlangs and languages?” Glad you asked. Check out the Quotations site of The Conlanger’s Library for a very favorable quote of Garfield’s concerning German. Yes, German, that language disparaged by Mark Twain. Garfield was also a scholar of “dead” languages and was a professor of Latin and Greek. His fiancee, Lucretia Randolph, and he actually exchanged letters concerning the worth of studying languages. Alas, but Garfield’s language acumen didst not blossom into the full grown flower of language creation…ahem, sorry, I was channeling the 19th century’s prose. Mea culpa.