Contributors wanted f or book on "Invented Languages"

[Michael Adams]

Suzette Haden Elgin constructed a language called Laaden for some of
her novels that improved on natural language because it wasn't oriented
towards the masculine -- it would be among the book's subject
languages, part of my introductory chapter as well as the chapter that
surveys conlangs.

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent:         Fri, 22 Jul 2005 10:55:00 -0400
Subject:      Re: Contributors wanted f or book on "Invented Languages"

  At 10:18 AM -0400 7/22/05, James A. Landau wrote:
  >A source you probably have not suspected is the US Army, or more
exactly
 >whoever it is who creates the standardized tests given all new
 >soldiers. When I
  >was drafted (August 1969) one of the numerous multiple-choice tests I
took
  >during my first week in the Army was called IIRC "the Army Language
Aptitude
 >Test".
 >
  >For this test there was an invented language with a vocabulary of, I
can't
  >recall exactly but at most a few dozen words, but with an elaborate
grammar of
  >the inflectional type---I recall it as somebody's rather sadistic
combination
 >of the more annoying features of Russian and Latin grammars. The
 >multiple-choice questions were all in this invented language.
 >
  >Jack Vance wrote a science fiction novel "The Languages of Pao" ABOUT
the
 >deliberate invention of languages. I don't recall that any samples
 >were given of
  >the invented languages, but the plot turned on the existence of these
new
 >languages.
 >
  >Some science fiction writers have had fun, after specifying the
languages
  >used in the worlds they create, creating a few words or even
sentences in this
  >language. None that I am aware of have gone nearly as far as Tolkien,
though.
  >The examples I am thinking of are Heinlein's "Glory Road" and a short
story by
  >C. M. Kornbluth whose title I cannot remember but which I think was
in his
  >collection "A Mile Beyond the Moon". Marion Zimmer Bradley in her
Darkover
 >stories has a few short examples of the language spoken on Darkover,
 >but it is not
 >an invented language but rather a variation of Spanish.
 >
 > - Jim Landau

 Also:
 Didn't Suzette Haden Elgin (who is a linguist with a PhD from U. C.
 San Diego and a much-published author of both linguistics texts and
 science fiction novels) construct a few languages along the way?

 Larry