[Membroj] ideologies of conlangers & the international language movement (2)

[Ralph Dumain]

Since my last rant on the subject I've been 
diving into my dust-covered collection on 
Esperanto and interlinguistics, which hasn't been 
substantially updated, or perused, for some 
years. I have to modify my impressions to some 
extent, but there are still probably more stories 
to be told. While I have Monnerot-Dumaine (1960) 
in French, and while there is substantial 
literature in German and Russian, and other 
languages, I'm confining my remarks to what is 
available in English and Esperanto.

First, I'm going to use this sloppy periodization 
of constructed languages for purposes of characterizing the literature:

(1) Ancient to medieval, with emphasis on the religious and mystical;
(2) early modern era, the scientific revolution & 
early modern philosophy, with emphasis on science 
and logic (Descartes, Leibniz, Wilkins, Dalgarno, etc.)
(3) the French Enlightenment;
(4) the 19th century prior to Volapuk;
(5) the birth of real movements: Volapuk, Esperanto, etc.
(6) international language movements in the 20th century;
(7) rebirth of philosophical or logical a priori 
languages for purposes of research and experimentation (Loglan, 1960);
(8) contemporary conlanging (sci fi, fantasy, 
gaming, aesthetic, philosophical & aesthetic interests).

Note that (2) and (3) pretty much go together, 
and merge in some studies with (1) or (4). (4) 
goes with (5) and (6). (8) involves concerns 
which are also very much part of the history spanning (1)-(7).

Concentrating attention on the concern with an 
history of constructed languages, I find some 
works more or less interesting now that I did 
when I read them decades ago. Also, I'm less 
interested in the exotic minutiae of various 
languages and the texts that concentrate strictly 
on linguistic comparisons than I am in the big 
historical picture--the big ideas and the social 
history. For example, back in the 1960s, the most 
readily available introduction to the subject in 
English was Mario Pei's One Language for the 
World, which contains a section on the exotica of 
constructed languages as part of a larger survey 
and apologetics for the subject. But I don't find 
this so interesting for my purposes now.

Of the books published (original or translated) 
in English since 1980, I'd say the three of 
greatest general interest for the general reader are:

Eco, Umberto. The Search for the Perfect 
Language; translated by James Fentress. (Ricerca 
della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea) 
Oxford, UK; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995. 
Substantial sections readable via 
<http://books.google.com/books?id=2sDMxqbibS0C&dq=umberto%2Beco%2Bsearch%2Bperfect%2Blanguage&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=8NKSSpPZG4i1lAec7r2wDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false>google 
books.

Large, J. A. The Artificial Language Movement. 
Oxford; New York: B. Blackwell; London: A. 
Deutsch, 1985. (The Language Library)

Okrent, Arika. In the Land of Invented Languages: 
Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan 
Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a 
Perfect Language. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009. 
See also web site: 
<http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com/>http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com. 


But there are others that could be added to this 
restricted list, first among them:

Rossi, Paolo. Logic and the Art of Memory: The 
Quest for a Universal Language; translated with 
an introduction by Stephen Clucas. Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press, 2000. 
<http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/uchi051/00029873.html>Contents. 
<http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/description/uchi052/00029873.html>Publisher 
description.

Where one chooses to start depends upon what 
period or phase one needs to focus on. Rossi 
focuses on the period growing out of the late 
medieval period and early modern era that 
generated the phase of philosophical languages. 
Eco is somewhat broader. Eco gets into the Middle 
Ages and the religious/mystical dimension at 
great length, as well as the philosophical 
languages and their echoes into the 19th century. 
He has a chapter on the modern phase beginning 
with Volapuk and including Esperanto, and he's 
deecent on Esperanto, but his interest is defined 
in other terms. For the general reader I might 
recommend Eco before Rossi, but I've read neither 
book. Much of Eco is available on google books.

I bought Large in Harvard Square in 1987, so it's 
been two over decades since I read it. But I got 
it out the mothballs a few days ago, and if one 
wants a historical overview of the whole 
movement, prior to the Internet era and the 
conlang craze, I'm guessing this is what you'd 
most want, unless you want to concentrate 
exclusively on the philosophical languages.

Okrent is the most recent entry, and for this and 
other reasons, the beginner would want to start 
here. But the "movement" aspect, which includes 
Volapuk, Esperanto, Ido, etc., is just one aspect 
of her interest. So depending on whether you need 
to zero in on the philosophical languages, the 
"movement" languages, or the conlanger 
subculture, you would prioritize your reading 
list accordingly. Okrent covers the conlangers as 
the author authors do not, so if you want a 
sampling of the whole history, start here.

I haven't yet read Okrent, but taking a look 
again at Large, I think one will get a sense in 
Large of what matters in terms of social and 
intellectual history of the two real historical 
movements--philosophical languages and international auxiliary languages.

Next I'll discuss the literature in Esperanto.


At 02:52 PM 8/14/2009, Ralph Dumain wrote:
>Hopefully, you'll forgive my ruminations on 
>specialized topics, such as my recent post on 
>anarchism and Esperanto. I have cause to write 
>in English or Esperanto, and I don't want to 
>send my English posts to international Esperanto 
>groups, so I send my English language 
>interventions here or post them on my gxirafo 
>blog. There are Esperantists in the DC area 
>interested in this stuff, so I don't feel too guilty.
>
>I don't remember how I got onto this, but 
>recently stumbling onto various references to 
>the quest for an international language in the 
>anarchist movement, predating the existence of 
>Esperanto and even Volapuk, got to me to 
>thinking. In the past, I would begin within the 
>history of the Esperanto movement, or in the 
>interlinguistics literature generally, and move 
>outward to various political and ideological 
>tendencies within these enterprises. But I've 
>also approached the matter from the opposite 
>direction; for example, the history of working 
>class education and autodidacticism includes the 
>role of Esperanto, and individuals who were 
>prominent in both, such as Mark Starr, whom a 
>few of you will remember. I think, though, that 
>one logically organizes one's material 
>differently when one examines, for example,  the 
>role of Esperanto and other artificial languages 
>within the anarchist movement, and anarchism 
>within the Esperanto movement. One could say the 
>same about socialism, feminism, science, 
>philosophy, etc. I've accumulated pieces of 
>information on most of these topics over the 
>decades, but I don't believe I ever thought 
>systematically about a possible difference between these two approaches.
>
>The philosophical languages of the 17th and 18th 
>centuries comprise a world unto itself, about 
>which there is an abundant scholarly literature. 
>There may still be something left to say about 
>this subject matter, but it hasn't been neglected.
>
>Then there is the serious thrust for an 
>international language gaining intensity in the 
>19th century. This has also been amply 
>documented in histories of the international 
>language movement. Still, in the English 
>language literature I've seen over the decades 
>(and my memory may be lapsing), the various 
>ideological currents do not stand out for me. 
>Again, looking at the interest in international 
>languages among anarchists predating the 
>appearance of Esperanto got me to thinking about 
>this. The need was obviously felt in various 
>quarters of society including the scientific 
>community. I remember reading, at the same time 
>I learned Esperanto four decades ago, about the 
>American Philosophical Society's interest in a 
>constructed language about the time Esperanto 
>came on the scene. Still, I can't recall a more 
>detailed picture of what factions of society 
>were interested and to what purpose.
>
>This story continues into the 20th century, and 
>I would mark another turning point with the 
>beginning or end of World War II. The world 
>political and linguistic order that followed 
>would mark another distinct period. Constructed 
>languages other than Esperanto continued to be 
>the objects of creators and hobbyists and the 
>handfuls of scholars interested in the subject 
>matter. This was the time of Mario Pei and the International Language Review.
>
>Now I would say this is the era of the 
>conlangers. I'm not sure when this begins or 
>when it can be marked off from what I remember 
>back in the 1960s. The Internet has certainly 
>accelerated the phenomenon. Also, the realm of 
>science fiction and fantasy, which already had 
>people interested in this stuff decades ago 
>thanks to Tolkein, and more recently, thanks to 
>Star Trek. I can't be certain whether one could 
>say there's a generational turnover involved, 
>but I'm guessing there has occurred a 
>qualitative change somewhere along the line. 
>Though I've met conlangers, I'm not part of the 
>conlanger subculture. My last intersection with 
>it was in the late 1980s when I encountered the 
>Lojban group in the DC area (headquartered in 
>Vienna, VA). And this is when my interest in the 
>ideological dimension was piqued. Ostensibly 
>Loglan/Lojban was invented to test the 
>Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, an enterprise I consider 
>rather dubious, but I was intrigued by this 
>group as an ideological subculture, whose real 
>properties lay beneath the surface of its 
>rationalism and conscious self-understanding.
>
>I lost track of the Lojbanists just before I, 
>and they, entered the Internet world. In more 
>recent years I've engaged in documenting the 
>conlanger world and interlinguistics online, at 
>least to the point of compiling bibliographies or web guides, mainly:
>
><http://www.autodidactproject.org/guidespo.html>Esperanto 
>& Interlinguistics Study Guide / Esperanto-Gvidilo (kun interlingvistiko)
>
><http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/lg-univ-bib1.html>Philosophical 
>and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography
>
>Early today I uploaded a classic work on the subject:
>
><http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/guerard1.html>A 
>Short History of the International Language 
>Movement by Albert Léon Guérard (1922)
>
>. . .  which I salvaged from an obscure corner 
>of the Internet. But I'm still not up on the 
>conlanger subculture, and my only real interest 
>is from a philosophical and sociological viewpoint.
>
>Now enter Arika Okrent's new book, which I mentioned here and blogged about:
>
><http://gxirafo.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-land-of-invented-languages.html>In 
>the Land of Invented Languages
>
>I've still not read it, but I've heard and read 
>interviews and book reviews, and I have a 
>general idea what's in it. This is a popular 
>book, and it seems to have been quite successful 
>in being pitched to a mass (relatively speaking) 
>audience. Okrent indeed touches on the 
>ideological aspects, which are in some cases 
>central to the existence of certain conlangs. 
>The most striking example that comes to mind is 
>Láadan, a language specifically designed to 
>express the nuances of the alleged female 
>experience of the world. I took a brief look at 
>a Láadan web site, but not long enough to gain 
>much of a perspective on it. A linguistic 
>subculture such as this is just begging for 
>ideological and sociological analysis. My memory 
>is not so great, I may be wrong, but I have the 
>impression that Okrent does not delve into this 
>dimension of the conlang world too deeply. It 
>seems to me that this is the next place to go, 
>and not just for one conlang, but for a broad 
>swath of conlangs and conlang hobbyists, and 
>ultimately connecting this up with a larger work 
>looking at the ideological contours of concern 
>with a universal language in previous eras.
>
>
>>From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain at autodidactproject.org>
>>Sender: ehist at yahoogroups.com
>>Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:54:26 -0400
>>Subject: [ehist] ideologio & interlingvistiko
>>Reply-To: ehist at yahoogroups.com
>>
>>Mi plejparte ekzamenas interlingvistikon kaj la
>>historion de la movado por universala lingvo en
>>la lingvoj angla kaj Esperanto. Jen miaj precipaj retgvidiloj:
>>
>>< http://www.autodidactproject.org/guidespo.html>Esperanto
>>& Interlinguistics Study Guide / Esperanto-Gvidilo (kun interlingvistiko)
>>
>>< http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/lg-univ-bib1.html >Philosophical
>>and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography
>>
>>Notu ankau, ke mi jxus aldonis cxi tiun klasikan verkon:
>>
>>< http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/guerard1.html>A
>>Short History of the International Language Movement by Albert Léon Guérard
>>
>>Cetere, kvankam cxi tiun temon plej interesas
>>interlingvistoj, Esperantistoj, kaj hobiistoj
>>("conlangers"), estas nova populara libro pri la
>>temo kiu gajnas multan atenton en la amaskomunikiloj. Notu mian blogeron:
>>
>>< http://gxirafo.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-land-of-invented-languages.html >In
>>the Land of Invented Languages
>>
>>pri libro de Arika Okrent.
>>
>>Aldone al la tradicie eldonita literaturo,
>>ekzistas multe da tia kaj nova materialo
>>interrete. Nu, kurioze estas, ke malgrau la
>>abundo de materialo pri la lingva dimensio de la
>>diversaj artefaritaj lingvoj, sxajne mankas
>>alispeca historia analizado. Mi klarigu.
>>Kompreneble, estas abunda literaturo pri diversaj
>>filozofiaj vidpunktoj pri la konstruado de
>>lingvoj. Estas ja studoj de la filozofiaj lingvoj
>>de Wilkins, ktp., kaj aktualaj logikaj kaj
>>filozofiaj lingvoprojektoj kiaj Logban/Lojban.
>>Estas studoj pri la sociologio de la
>>Esperanto-movado, kaj ideologiaj facetoj de gxia
>>historio, ekz. la laborista movado, marksismo,
>>anarkiismo, pacismo, homaranismo, ktp. Gxenerale
>>oni agnoskas la utopiisman motivon de artefaritaj
>>lingvoj. Mi nebule memoras la verkojn de Drezen
>>kaj Spiridovic, kiujn mi devos reviziti. La verko
>>de Okrent ja pritraktas ideologiajn facetojn de
>>inventitaj lingvoj, ekz. Láadan, lingvo kiu
>>lauraporte respegulas la vidpunkton de virinoj.
>>
>>Tamen, sxajnas al mi ke mankas historia, sistema
>>kaj analiza superrigardo de la interago de la
>>tiel-nomita planlingva movado kun diversaj aliaj
>>filozofiaj, ideologiaj, kaj politikaj tendencoj
>>(krom verkoj pri la filozofiaj lingvoj kaj la
>>scienca revolucio kaj frumoderna filozofio). Oni
>>povus analizi el la starpunktoj de la
>>planlingvanoj mem, au el starpunktoj de aliaj
>>movadoj kaj interesoj, ekz. anarkiismo, feminismo, filozofio, ktp.
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