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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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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
<i>International Language Review</i>. <br><br>
Now I would say this is the era of the <i>conlangers</i>. 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 <i>Star Trek</i>. 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. <br><br>
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:<br><br>
<font size=2><a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/guidespo.html">
Esperanto & Interlinguistics Study Guide / Esperanto-Gvidilo (kun
interlingvistiko)</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/lg-univ-bib1.html">
Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes:
Selected Bibliography</a><br><br>
</font>Early today I uploaded a classic work on the subject:<br><br>
<i><a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/guerard1.html">A Short
History of the International Language Movement</a></i> by Albert Léon
Guérard (1922)<br><br>
. . . 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. <br><br>
Now enter Arika Okrent's new book, which I mentioned here and blogged
about:<br><br>
<a href="http://gxirafo.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-land-of-invented-languages.html">
In the Land of Invented Languages</a> <br><br>
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 <b>Láadan</b>,
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.<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">From: Ralph Dumain
<rdumain@autodidactproject.org><br>
Sender: ehist@yahoogroups.com<br>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:54:26 -0400<br>
Subject: [ehist] ideologio & interlingvistiko<br>
Reply-To: ehist@yahoogroups.com <br><br>
Mi plejparte ekzamenas interlingvistikon kaj la <br>
historion de la movado por universala lingvo en <br>
la lingvoj angla kaj Esperanto. Jen miaj precipaj retgvidiloj:<br><br>
<<a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/guidespo.html">
http://www.autodidactproject.org/guidespo.html</a>>Esperanto <br>
& Interlinguistics Study Guide / Esperanto-Gvidilo (kun
interlingvistiko)<br><br>
<<a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/lg-univ-bib1.html">
http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/lg-univ-bib1.html</a>
>Philosophical <br>
and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected
Bibliography<br><br>
Notu ankau, ke mi jxus aldonis cxi tiun klasikan verkon:<br><br>
<<a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/guerard1.html">
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/guerard1.html</a>>A <br>
Short History of the International Language Movement by Albert Léon
Guérard<br><br>
Cetere, kvankam cxi tiun temon plej interesas <br>
interlingvistoj, Esperantistoj, kaj hobiistoj <br>
("conlangers"), estas nova populara libro pri la <br>
temo kiu gajnas multan atenton en la amaskomunikiloj. Notu mian
blogeron:<br><br>
<<a href="http://gxirafo.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-land-of-invented-languages.html">
http://gxirafo.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-land-of-invented-languages.html</a>
>In <br>
the Land of Invented Languages<br><br>
pri libro de Arika Okrent.<br><br>
Aldone al la tradicie eldonita literaturo, <br>
ekzistas multe da tia kaj nova materialo <br>
interrete. Nu, kurioze estas, ke malgrau la <br>
abundo de materialo pri la lingva dimensio de la <br>
diversaj artefaritaj lingvoj, sxajne mankas <br>
alispeca historia analizado. Mi klarigu. <br>
Kompreneble, estas abunda literaturo pri diversaj <br>
filozofiaj vidpunktoj pri la konstruado de <br>
lingvoj. Estas ja studoj de la filozofiaj lingvoj <br>
de Wilkins, ktp., kaj aktualaj logikaj kaj <br>
filozofiaj lingvoprojektoj kiaj Logban/Lojban. <br>
Estas studoj pri la sociologio de la <br>
Esperanto-movado, kaj ideologiaj facetoj de gxia <br>
historio, ekz. la laborista movado, marksismo, <br>
anarkiismo, pacismo, homaranismo, ktp. Gxenerale <br>
oni agnoskas la utopiisman motivon de artefaritaj <br>
lingvoj. Mi nebule memoras la verkojn de Drezen <br>
kaj Spiridovic, kiujn mi devos reviziti. La verko <br>
de Okrent ja pritraktas ideologiajn facetojn de <br>
inventitaj lingvoj, ekz. Láadan, lingvo kiu <br>
lauraporte respegulas la vidpunkton de virinoj.<br><br>
Tamen, sxajnas al mi ke mankas historia, sistema <br>
kaj analiza superrigardo de la interago de la <br>
tiel-nomita planlingva movado kun diversaj aliaj <br>
filozofiaj, ideologiaj, kaj politikaj tendencoj <br>
(krom verkoj pri la filozofiaj lingvoj kaj la <br>
scienca revolucio kaj frumoderna filozofio). Oni <br>
povus analizi el la starpunktoj de la <br>
planlingvanoj mem, au el starpunktoj de aliaj <br>
movadoj kaj interesoj, ekz. anarkiismo, feminismo, filozofio,
ktp.</blockquote></body>
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