{"id":313,"date":"2010-05-22T19:45:43","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T02:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/?p=313"},"modified":"2010-05-22T19:48:19","modified_gmt":"2010-05-23T02:48:19","slug":"not-conlangs-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/?p=313","title":{"rendered":"Not Conlangs, but…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/p>\n

<\/a>I just finished reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms<\/em> by N.K. Jemisin. Although she states clearly on her web site<\/a> that “I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consult a linguist to make the languages internally consistent, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m aware that some of the patterns of pronunciation contradict each other”, she has included some interesting con-vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Most notably, the word esui<\/em> which is defined in the book as follows: “The Darren language has a word for the attraction one feels to danger: esui<\/em>. It is esui<\/em> that makes warriors charge into hopeless battles and die laughing. Esui<\/em> is also what draws women to lovers who are bad for them — men who would make poor fathers, women of the enemy. The Senmite word that comes closest is ‘lust,’ if one includes the variations ‘bloodlust’ and ‘lust for life,’ though these do not adequately capture the layered nature of esui<\/em>. It is glory, it is folly. It is everything not sensible, not rational, not safe at all — but without esui<\/em>, there is no point in living.”<\/p>\n

This is just one word, but it demonstrates nicely (from my perspective) the ability of invented words to convey new ideas not available in natlangs. To use a natlang example, it’s like trying to convey in English the meaning of Schadenfreude<\/em>, but with a con-vocabulary the sky’s the limit.<\/p>\n

Although not a conlanger, Jemisin does a nice job of incorporating the idea of language. Her gods (yes, gods) speak their own tongue. Knowing this language allows scriveners<\/em> to manipulate reality. Different peoples in the hundred thousands kingdoms speak their own languages (although we don’t actually read any of them in dialogues).<\/p>\n

On a completely different level, the book was an enjoyable read. The characters were interesting. The plot had plenty of twists. Overall, a thumbs-up. Just don’t go looking for a conlang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Although she states clearly on her web site that “I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consult a linguist to make the languages internally consistent, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m aware that some of the patterns of pronunciation contradict each other”, she has included some interesting con-vocabulary. Most notably, the word esui […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}