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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.
<br><br>
First, I'm going to use this sloppy periodization of constructed
languages for purposes of characterizing the literature:<br><br>
(1) Ancient to medieval, with emphasis on the religious and
mystical;<br>
(2) early modern era, the scientific revolution & early modern
philosophy, with emphasis on science and logic (Descartes, Leibniz,
Wilkins, Dalgarno, etc.)<br>
(3) the French Enlightenment;<br>
(4) the 19th century prior to Volapuk;<br>
(5) the birth of real movements: Volapuk, Esperanto, etc.<br>
(6) international language movements in the 20th century;<br>
(7) rebirth of philosophical or logical a priori languages for purposes
of research and experimentation (Loglan, 1960);<br>
(8) contemporary conlanging (sci fi, fantasy, gaming, aesthetic,
philosophical & aesthetic interests).<br><br>
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). <br><br>
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
<i>One Language for the World</i>, 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. <br><br>
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:<br><br>
Eco, Umberto. <i>The Search for the Perfect Language</i>; translated by
James Fentress. (<i>Ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura
europea</i>) Oxford, UK; Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1995. Substantial
sections readable via
<a href="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</a>. <br><br>
Large, J. A. <i>The Artificial Language Movement</i>. Oxford; New York:
B. Blackwell; London: A. Deutsch, 1985. (The Language Library) <br><br>
Okrent, Arika. <i>In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock
Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to
Build a Perfect Language</i>. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009. See
also web site:
<a href="http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com/">
http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com</a>. <br><br>
But there are others that could be added to this restricted list, first
among them:<br><br>
Rossi, Paolo. <i>Logic and the Art of Memory: The Quest for a Universal
Language</i>; translated with an introduction by Stephen Clucas. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2000.
<a href="http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/uchi051/00029873.html">
Contents</a>.
<a href="http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/description/uchi052/00029873.html">
Publisher description</a>. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Next I'll discuss the literature in Esperanto.<br><br>
<br>
At 02:52 PM 8/14/2009, Ralph Dumain wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">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%3EEsperanto" eudora="autourl">
http://www.autodidactproject.org/guidespo.html>Esperanto</a> <br>
& Interlinguistics Study Guide / Esperanto-Gvidilo (kun
interlingvistiko)<br><br>
<
<a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/lg-univ-bib1.html" eudora="autourl">
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%3EA" eudora="autourl">
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" eudora="autourl">
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></blockquote></body>
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