Language and Linguistics - Shaw

[Ellen Contini-Morava]

Suzette Haden Elgin, linguist and science fiction author, should be 
added to the list.  She also writes a newsletter called Linguistics and 
Science Fiction. 

Ellen

Joshua Raclaw wrote:
> Outside of Tolkien, Anthony Burgess comes to mind - he constructed a conlang for a film back in the early 80s (the name of which is *completely* escaping me), constructed Nadsat for his _A Clockwork Orange_, and wrote a novel (_The Doctor is Sick_) where the protagonist is a Ph.D.-holding lecturer in linguistics, among other qualifications.
>
> Joshua
>
>
> Joshua Raclaw - PhD student
> Department of Linguistics
> Culture, Language & Social Practice
> Women and Gender Studies
> University of Colorado at Boulder
> http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~raclaw/
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>   
>> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:11:56 -0000
>> From: "Patrick, Peter L" <patrickp at essex.ac.uk>  
>> Subject: RE: [Linganth] Language and Linguistics - Shaw  
>> To: "Robert Lawless" <robert.lawless at wichita.edu>
>> Cc: <linganth at cc.rochester.edu>
>>
>>   Link: File-List
>>
>>   I think Barbara is right - GBS was, certainly for his day,
>>   linguistically sophisticated.
>>
>>    
>>
>>   He campaigned for a phonemic alphabet and even attempted to devise his
>>   own - the Shavian alphabet (which however was actually implemented by
>>   Kingsley Read, with a bequest from Shaw's will) has been incorporated
>>   into Unicode, though I've never seen it used online except as a
>>   curiosity.
>>
>>               http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/shavian.html
>>
>>   Each symbol has a  name - some of them are wonderful - my favourites
>>   are "Whoops", "Tsadey" and "Dep".
>>
>>   This was perhaps less of a crank project in his day than it now
>>   appears, after many more spelling reformers have come and gone without
>>   affecting common practice at all. The principle behind Shaw's approach
>>   (a phonetic orthography which is visually distinct from the Roman
>>   alphabet) has survived into some attempts to create standard
>>   orthographies for newly-written languages, though I think they mostly
>>   now go the other way. An obvious flaw of Shaw's system is that
>>   different spellings are required for each accent of English...
>>
>>    
>>
>>   Tolkien was another linguistically sophisticated writer...
>>
>>               -peter-
>>
>>    
>>
>>   Peter L Patrick
>>
>>   Dept. of Language and Linguistics
>>
>>   University of Essex
>>
>>   Wivenhoe Park
>>
>>   Colchester CO4 3SQ
>>
>>   UK
>>
>>   patrickp at essex.ac.uk
>>
>>    
>>
>>   -----Original Message-----
>>   From: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
>>   [mailto:owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Lawless
>>   Sent: 10 March 2008 14:09
>>   To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
>>   Subject: RE: [Linganth] Language and Linguistics
>>
>>    
>>
>>   In the preface to Pygmalion Shaw states, "Higgins is not a portrait of
>>
>>   Sweet, to whom the adventure of Eliza Doolittle would have been
>>   impossible;
>>
>>   still, as will be seen, there are touches of Sweet in the play." At
>>   any
>>
>>   rate, I'm not sure that writing about a linguist makes one a linguist.
>>   Robert.
>>
>>    
>>
>>   At 08:59 AM 3/10/2008, Barbara Johnstone wrote:
>>
>>   >G.B. Shaw?  Pygmalion, remember?  The Henry Higgins character was
>>   based on
>>
>>   >Henry Sweet.
>>
>>   >
>>
>>   >
>>
>>   >_________________
>>
>>   >Barbara Johnstone
>>
>>   >Professor of Rhetoric and Linguistics;
>>
>>   >Director of Graduate Studies
>>
>>   >Editor, Language in Society
>>
>>   >Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University
>>
>>   >Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890 USA
>>
>>   >
>>
>>   >bj4 at andrew.cmu.edu
>>
>>   >412.268.6447 office phone/voicemail, 412.268.7989 fax
>>
>>   >http://english.cmu.edu/people/faculty/homepages/johnstone/default.html
>>
>>   >Pittsburgh Speech and Society: http://pittsburghspeech.com
>>
>>   >__________________________
>>
>>   >
>>
>>   >
>>
>>   > > -----Original Message-----
>>
>>   > > From: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu [mailto:owner-
>>
>>   > > linganth at ats.rochester.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Lawless
>>
>>   > > Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 9:39 AM
>>
>>   > > To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
>>
>>   > > Subject: [Linganth] Language and Linguistics
>>
>>   > >
>>
>>   > > Were any of the great (or even not-so-great) literary giants of
>>   English
>>
>>   > > linguistically sophisticated? Is it of any benefit to a writer to
>>   be able
>>
>>   > > to articulate the structure and history of the language? Robert.
>>
>>   > >
>>
>>   > >
>>
>>    
>>
>>    
>>
>>   .
>>