donaldboozer
Case 1: Intro and Quotes
(poster) Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages
What are Constructed Languages?
Many people are familiar with languages like English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Swahili, and German. Lesser-known languages include Basque, Georgian, Tibetan, Mohawk, Quechua, and Guguyimidjir. Some languages that are no longer spoken include Etruscan, Gothic, Gaulish, Tocharian, Hittite, Akkadian, and Ancient Egyptian. The one thing that all these languages share is that they all evolved naturally, arising organically within a group of people through various natural forces. No single person defined their vocabularies, designed their syntaxes, or deliberately decided to create them.
Of course, this is a continuum. Some languages (French, for example) are regulated by government bodies like l'Académie Française. Some (like Korean or Cherokee) have had writing systems created for them but otherwise have evolved naturally.
Constructed languages, or conlangs for short, stand at the other end of the spectrum: a single person (or a small group) defines the vocabulary, designs the syntax, and deliberately decides to create a language. Why would someone want to do this when there are so many "real" languages to learn? The reasons are legion: from the simple artistic desire to play with linguistic concepts to the obsession to provide the world with a universal language. Conlangers (those who construct languages) bring a myriad of skills, tastes, and goals to the art and craft of conlanging. Conlanging is a worldwide phenomenon practiced by people of all ages. It is hoped that this exhibit will provide a glimpse into the fascinating world of conlangs and those who take part in this art. As J.R.R. Tolkien may have said in Quenya: Á harya alassë! Enjoy!
(Top left) Invent a new language anyone can understand.
~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Challenges to Young Poets” (excerpt)
(Top right) My language! heavens!
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where 'tis spoken.
~ Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act I, Scene 2)
(middle left, quote only) La plus part des occasions des troubles du monde sont grammairiennes.
The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to disputes about grammar.
~ Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book 2
(Middle, left w/photo) …language is not the frosting, it’s the cake.
~ Tom Robbins, “What is the Function of Metaphor?” Wild Ducks Flying Backward
(Middle, center) But language is wine upon his lips.
~ Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room
(Middle right) We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.
~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
(Middle left, quote only) ...und in irgend einer fernen Zukunft wird es eine neue Sprache, zuerst als Handelssprache, dann als Sprache des geistigen Verkehres überhaupt, für Alle geben, so gewiss, als es einmal Luft-Schifffahrt giebt.
...and in a future as far removed as one may wish, there will be a new language which will first serve as a means of business communication, later as a vehicle for intellectual relations, just as certainly as there will be some day travel by air.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, “Anzeichen höherer und niederer Cultur,” Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (1876) (Nietzsche’s skeptical late-nineteenth-century prophecy of the possibility of both an international language and air travel.)
(Bottom) Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims: Quotation and Originality
(Dr. Seuss) “In the places I go there are things that I see
“That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
“I’m telling you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends.
“My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!
~Dr. Seuss, On Beyond Zebra!
(small rectangular disclaimer; place in one bottom corner of case please):
NOTE: Translations from The Bible (Genesis 11:1-9 (Tower of Babel text) and Genesis 6:6-7) should not be taken as an endorsement of any specific religion. The use of verses from The Bible for illustrative purposes is due to the prevalence of translations of this work across both time and languages.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
~ Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures (Chomsky cites this sentence as one which makes no semantic sense but can make grammatical sense.)
Case 1: Intro and Quotes
(poster) Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages
What are Constructed Languages?
Many people are familiar with languages like English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Swahili, and German. Lesser-known languages include Basque, Georgian, Tibetan, Mohawk, Quechua, and Guguyimidjir. Some languages that are no longer spoken include Etruscan, Gothic, Gaulish, Tocharian, Hittite, Akkadian, and Ancient Egyptian. The one thing that all these languages share is that they all evolved naturally, arising organically within a group of people through various natural forces. No single person defined their vocabularies, designed their syntaxes, or deliberately decided to create them.
Of course, this is a continuum. Some languages (French, for example) are regulated by government bodies like l'Académie Française. Some (like Korean or Cherokee) have had writing systems created for them but otherwise have evolved naturally.
Constructed languages, or conlangs for short, stand at the other end of the spectrum: a single person (or a small group) defines the vocabulary, designs the syntax, and deliberately decides to create a language. Why would someone want to do this when there are so many "real" languages to learn? The reasons are legion: from the simple artistic desire to play with linguistic concepts to the obsession to provide the world with a universal language. Conlangers (those who construct languages) bring a myriad of skills, tastes, and goals to the art and craft of conlanging. Conlanging is a worldwide phenomenon practiced by people of all ages. It is hoped that this exhibit will provide a glimpse into the fascinating world of conlangs and those who take part in this art. As J.R.R. Tolkien may have said in Quenya: Á harya alassë! Enjoy!
(Top left) Invent a new language anyone can understand.
~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Challenges to Young Poets” (excerpt)
(Top right) My language! heavens!
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where 'tis spoken.
~ Shakespeare, The Tempest (Act I, Scene 2)
(middle left, quote only) La plus part des occasions des troubles du monde sont grammairiennes.
The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to disputes about grammar.
~ Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book 2
(Middle, left w/photo) …language is not the frosting, it’s the cake.
~ Tom Robbins, “What is the Function of Metaphor?” Wild Ducks Flying Backward
(Middle, center) But language is wine upon his lips.
~ Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room
(Middle right) We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.
~ Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
(Middle left, quote only) ...und in irgend einer fernen Zukunft wird es eine neue Sprache, zuerst als Handelssprache, dann als Sprache des geistigen Verkehres überhaupt, für Alle geben, so gewiss, als es einmal Luft-Schifffahrt giebt.
...and in a future as far removed as one may wish, there will be a new language which will first serve as a means of business communication, later as a vehicle for intellectual relations, just as certainly as there will be some day travel by air.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, “Anzeichen höherer und niederer Cultur,” Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (1876) (Nietzsche’s skeptical late-nineteenth-century prophecy of the possibility of both an international language and air travel.)
(Bottom) Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims: Quotation and Originality
(Dr. Seuss) “In the places I go there are things that I see
“That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
“I’m telling you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends.
“My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!
~Dr. Seuss, On Beyond Zebra!
(small rectangular disclaimer; place in one bottom corner of case please):
NOTE: Translations from The Bible (Genesis 11:1-9 (Tower of Babel text) and Genesis 6:6-7) should not be taken as an endorsement of any specific religion. The use of verses from The Bible for illustrative purposes is due to the prevalence of translations of this work across both time and languages.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
~ Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures (Chomsky cites this sentence as one which makes no semantic sense but can make grammatical sense.)