HIja', tlhIngan Hol vIjatlh
What does “communication” mean?
Marriage counselors lump it under the heading of the skill needed by one
partner to tell the other what is missing in their marriage, in 2010 there was
talk of a space ambassador being appointed
by the United Nations to act as the first point of contact for aliens trying to
communicate with Earth, and no movie quiz is complete without that
quotation from Cool Hand Luke.
The medium of communication
which interests me most is language, so I was fascinated by Arika Okrent’s
book, “In the Land of Invented Languages.” She writes of over 900 documented languages devised
by an equal number of people, not all of them linguists, but most of them a tad
odd, from Hildegard of Bingen to Marc Okrand (we’ll talk about him later.) I
would recommend the book, but I have a sneaking feeling that apart from me, the
only people who would enjoy it are my friend Halina and my arch-rival from
college, Audrey.
The need for such languages is
obvious. You have only to watch a UN debate and see the earphones adorning
politicians as they discuss international issues to realize that a
one-size-fits-all language would a boon. All languages are imperfect, as anyone
who has waded through irregular verbs will tell you. All mousetraps are
imperfect. But while it is permissible to attempt to perfect a mousetrap, even
as the existing version is in use, the same policy cannot be applied to a language.
So why not invent one? Alas,
such attempts have never worked. Much of the fascination of the book is the
description of the language designs that were attempted—categories and
sub-categories, languages based on mathematics or on symbols or on concepts.
None, with the exception of Esperanto, even got off the ground.
And Mr. Okrand? He has a Ph.D.
in Linguistics and was working on closed captioning for the 1982 Academy Awards
when he answered a call to come up with some lines in Klingon and soon there
was a whole Klingon language, with certification exams. Dr. Okrent is quick to
inform us she passed her Klingon exam (only First Level so far, but with a
score of 93.)
There is a part of me that wants
to put my language skills to the test—the title of this post by the way
supposedly means “I speak Klingon” or rather “Yes,
Klingon language I-it-speak.” But for now I
will content myself with admiring the complexity of Dr. Okrent’s book. Anyone
interested in a trip to Chicago next Christmas for the Klingon version of “A Christmas Carol?”
5 comments:
I hope that you won't mind a message from your homeland. You wrote about artificial languages that "such attempts have never worked", while conceding that Espoeranto is an exception.
Esperanto is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, and in my view, is a remarkable success story.
Esperanto is not a utopian dream. It works! I’ve used it in speech and writing - and sung in it - in about fifteen countries over recent years.
If you're interested in learning Esperanto, take a look at http://www.lernu.net Much more useful than a trip to see the Klingon version of “A Christmas Carol”, I think!
Pretty useless to compare Klingon with Esperanto. Especially because Esperanto is designed to be an international language, whereas Klingon is not.
Probably less than 10 percent of all educated people have even heard of Esperanto so do not know that, for example, the Esperanto Wikipedia has about 150,000 articles, (which get about 400,000 views per day). By contrast the total number of articles about Klingon in Wikipedia total only 189, and nothing has been added since 2006.
The World Esperanto Association enjoys consultative relations with both the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Does Klingon ?
A pity also that it is not generally known that you may find Esperanto speakers in more than 130 countries. Or that more people in Burundi per head of the population speak Esperanto than in any other country. Thirty schools in Burundi teach Esperanto ; how many teach Klingon?
Pretty useless to compare Klingon with Esperanto. Especially because Esperanto is designed to be an international language, whereas Klingon is not.
Probably less than 10 percent of all educated people have even heard of Esperanto so do not know that, for example, the Esperanto Wikipedia has about 150,000 articles, (which get about 400,000 views per day). By contrast the total number of articles about Klingon in Wikipedia total only 189, and nothing has been added since 2006.
The World Esperanto Association enjoys consultative relations with both the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Does Klingon ?
A pity also that it is not generally known that you may find Esperanto speakers in more than 130 countries. Or that more people in Burundi per head of the population speak Esperanto than in any other country. Thirty schools in Burundi teach Esperanto ; how many teach Klingon?
Apologies for not giving Esperanto its due. If this were a serious paper I would have done more research, but my blog is a hobby which is read by hardly anyone, commented on by even fewer. My point was that although I am part of the 10% that has heard of Esperanto, I was totally taken aback by languages like Nmtish, Fasilfon and Frater. I credit Dr. Okrent with an in depth investigation into Esperanto (she attended the Congress in Havana). I think her inclusion of Klingon was as much as anything an attempt to add humor to her book. I don't think I will follow her footsteps and attempt to learn it, though I will now perhaps look a little more closely at Esperanto. Thanks for your comments.
For those who think Klingon should be the future international language please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8TQGVh025E4
Post a Comment