Invented Language Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Preliminary analysis using corpus methodologies towards a definition of Nadsat.
Beyond popular accolades and prestigious positions at powerful research institutions (which unfortunately are not at all involved), there are some real benefits to a study of JRR Tolkien's invented languages and scripts. For one thing,... more
Beyond popular accolades and prestigious positions at powerful research institutions (which unfortunately are not at all involved), there are some real benefits to a study of JRR Tolkien's invented languages and scripts. For one thing, they provide a challenge: poorly attested, highly restrictive in genre, and without comprehensive dictionaries and grammars. Like scholars of Etruscan, Gothic, Tocharian, and other fragmentary tongues known primarily (or solely) from disconnected manuscripts, students of Tolkien's languages employ the methods of comparative linguistics to decode these tongues, all of which are (carefully designed to appear to be) historically related. Further, although a philologist of distinction, it is frequently lamented that Tolkien did not publish nearly as many philological papers as some of his contemporaries; nonetheless, he worked for some sixty years perfecting the histories and relationships of his invented languages. In recent years, Tolkienian linguists have shown that these languages became the repositories of some of his most profound reflections on linguistics, philosophy, and the theory of translation: ample reward indeed for intrepid decipherers.
A majority of linguistic research concentrates on the conceptual exchange of information, and as a result the emotional aspects of language are found to be superfluous when observing the characteristics of communication. However, the... more
A majority of linguistic research concentrates on the conceptual exchange of information, and as a result the emotional aspects of language are found to be superfluous when observing the characteristics of communication. However, the prosody (or melody) within language becomes increasingly more necessary when observed as poetry or music, and one of the key aims of the present paper is to address the shared characteristics exhibited by the means of communication that exist between primitive language and music.
BĀLAYBALAN, aka Bālaïbalan, Bāl-a i-Balan, and Bâleybelen, an a priori constructed language, represented by a single dictionary, manuscript copies of which are preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Princeton University... more
BĀLAYBALAN, aka Bālaïbalan, Bāl-a i-Balan, and Bâleybelen, an a priori constructed language, represented by a single dictionary, manuscript copies of which are preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Princeton University Library. It was possibly used by the adherents of Ḥorūfīsm (q.v.), a mystical movement that flourished in Iran from the end of the 14th century to the mid-15th century. It is the earliest attested constructed language, and one of a very few that are not of European origin.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that the language someone speaks shapes their thoughts. Although this view may have fallen into disrepute in the field of linguistics, its influence, the Whorfianism, has been the number one showcase in... more
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that the language someone speaks shapes their thoughts. Although this view may have fallen into disrepute in the field of linguistics, its influence, the Whorfianism, has been the number one showcase in science fiction works that somehow approach language, and more specifically, invented languages. This paper uses Ted Chiang's award-winning novella Story of your life (1998) and its filmic adaptation Arrival (2016) directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer as a case study to investigate this literary phenomenon. The considerations of Guy Deutscher (2010), Stockwell (2006) and Ria Cheyne (2008), as well as the authors' own viewpoints, are vitally important for that. The result is a speculative and comparative analysis that contributes to a better understanding of the frequent connexion of science fiction, glossopoesis and Whorfianism. Heptapod B e whorfianism. Extrapolação da linguagem na ficção científica RESUMO. A hipótese Sapir-Whorf afirma que a língua que alguém fala molda seus pensamentos. Embora esta visão tenha caído em descrédito no campo da linguística, sua influência, o Whorfianismo, aparece recorrentemente em obras de ficção científica que de algum modo abordam linguagem, e mais especificamente, línguas inventadas. Este trabalho utiliza a premiada obra de Ted Chiang Estória da sua vida (1998) e sua adaptação fílmica A chegada (2016), dirigido por Denis Villeneuve e escrito por Eric Heisserer, como estudo de caso para investigar este fenômeno literário. As considerações de Guy Deutscher (2010), Stockwell (2006), de Ria Cheyne (2008) bem como dos próprios autores são de vital importância para o que propomos aqui. O resulto é uma análise especulativa e comparativa que contribui para um melhor entendimento da frequente conexão da ficção científica, glossopoese e Whorfianismo. Palavras-chave: heptapod B; ficção científica; whorfianismo; glossopoese; línguas inventadas.
Since his birth in 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien walked many paths during his life, which led him to be known as an author, a linguist, an academic and a mythologist, along with less career-orientated factions denoting him as a soldier,... more
Since his birth in 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien walked many paths during his life, which led him to be known as an author, a linguist, an academic and a mythologist, along with less career-orientated factions denoting him as a soldier, a Roman Catholic and a father. Therefore, it beggars logic to isolate the attributes of Tolkien’s multiplexed career, such that suitable references
can be made in retrospect, highlighting the points in his life that pay dividends to the man as he is known today.
A preview of the first chapter from my forthcoming book "The Elvish Writing Systems of J.R.R. Tolkien", covering Tolkien's history in writing systems, the origins of Sindarin and Quenya, the Tengwar, Cirth and Sarati, a history of Arda... more
A preview of the first chapter from my forthcoming book "The Elvish Writing Systems of J.R.R. Tolkien", covering Tolkien's history in writing systems, the origins of Sindarin and Quenya, the Tengwar, Cirth and Sarati, a history of Arda and Middle-earth, aesthetics of the written word and prerequisites for learning Elvish.
This article situates Tolkien’s “A Secret Vice” (and its accompanying notes and papers) within the cultural and intellectual milieu of the early 20th century. It claims that at the heart of Tolkien’s exploration in this material is the... more
This article situates Tolkien’s “A Secret Vice” (and its accompanying notes and papers) within the cultural and intellectual milieu of the early 20th century. It claims that at the heart of Tolkien’s exploration in this material is the question of language as communication vs. language as art. It argues that Tolkien’s language invention navigates the (perceived) binary between a utilitarian aim for language invention (contemporary International Auxiliary Languages) vs. an aesthetic linguistic pursuit (contemporary Modernist and other avant-garde linguistic experimentation), by choosing a third (middle) way. It examines Tolkien's linguistic invention alongside the work of Sapir, Jespersen, Joyce, Stein, and the Dada and zaum poets.
In this assignment, you will use the clues provided in The Fellowship of the Ring (the first volume of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, published in July 1954) to decipher the book's title-page inscriptions (shown above, and in more... more
In this assignment, you will use the clues provided in The Fellowship of the Ring (the first volume of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, published in July 1954) to decipher the book's title-page inscriptions (shown above, and in more detail on the following pages). This assignment is intended to increase your experience with decipherment, but it also puts you in the position of the book's first readers, who waited more than a year between the appearance of The Fellowship of the Ring and the eventual appearance of keys to Tolkien's invented alphabets in The Return of the King (in October 1955). In the meantime, a number of readers had deciphered the title-page inscriptions on their own and had even written Tolkien letters using his alphabets. We call these people ‘geeks’ (though not without affection), and today you get to be one too!
This in an extended version of a paper that I delivered at the the May 2016 International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo Michigan. It draws upon newly published material in Tolkien's A Secret Vice - Tolkien on Language Invention... more
This in an extended version of a paper that I delivered at the the May 2016 International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo Michigan. It draws upon newly published material in Tolkien's A Secret Vice - Tolkien on Language Invention co-edited by Dr. Dimitra Fimi and myself published by HarperCollins.
The 1962 dystopian novella A Clockwork Orange achieved global cultural resonance when it was adapted for the cinema by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. However, its author Anthony Burgess insisted that the novel’s innovative element was the... more
The 1962 dystopian novella A Clockwork Orange achieved global cultural resonance when it was adapted for the cinema by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. However, its author Anthony Burgess insisted that the novel’s innovative element was the introduction of ‘Nadsat’, an art language he created for his protagonist Alex and his violent gang of droogs. This constructed anti-language has achieved a cultural currency and become the subject of considerable academic attention over a 50-year period, but to date no study has attempted a systematic analysis of its resources and distribution. Rather, a number of studies have attempted to investigate the effects of Nadsat, especially in terms of the author’s claim that learning it functioned as a form of ‘brainwashing’ embedded within the text. This paper uses corpus methods to help isolate, quantify and categorise the distinctive lexicogrammatical features of this art language and investigate how Burgess introduces a new, mainly Russian-based lexicon t...
An interview with Dr. Jessica Sams about invented languages and the environmental humanities.
This work deals with fictional languages and their use in online communities, with particular emphasis on four languages (i.e., Klingon, Dothraki, Tolkien’s Elvish, and Na’vi). The main goal is the definition of the linguistic communities... more
This work deals with fictional languages and their use in online communities, with particular emphasis on four languages (i.e., Klingon, Dothraki, Tolkien’s Elvish, and Na’vi). The main goal is the definition of the linguistic communities who actually use these languages: a part of actors and creators, fictional languages are actually used by fans at various levels of commitment. Thus, we argue that they are a fundamental part of an “in-group making” strategy in online communities, which, in sociolinguistic terms, could be defined as “community of practice”.
A qualitative analysis will be provided by looking at discussions in dedicated chats and forums, but also in fan-fictions (i.e., stories written by fans). Non-experts (i.e., non-conlangers, and non-linguists) discuss about grammatical features of these languages, but also about the possible sociolinguistic variation in the use of some words or syntactic structures. The example in (1) shows the typical concerns of fans using fictional languages, in this case, Dothraki:
(1) As I often ask, did I use the words right?
Zhey Irri! Zhey Jhiqui! Doreah me mesile. – Irri! Jhiqui! Doreah is pregnant.
Is it a proper use of zhey to get their attention here?
The verb is mesilat, to be pregnant. I’m not sure if the stem is mesi or mesil […]. If I assume the stem is mesi, the third person is mesie, which just sounds weird […]
This writer’s questions on Dothraki language are about both grammatical features (the ending of the verb mesilat ‘to be pregnant’) and pragmatic features (the discourse particle zhey).
In conclusion, this works is a qualitative analysis of the use of invented languages in online communities from a sociolinguistic and pragmatic perspective.
The tongues spoken in Gondor and its surrounding regions before the return of Númenoreans to Middle-earth are poorly documented. Beside the tongue spoken by Tal- Elmar’s tribe, which has been studied by Roman Rausch, there must have... more
The tongues spoken in Gondor and its surrounding regions before the return of Númenoreans to Middle-earth are poorly documented. Beside the tongue spoken by Tal- Elmar’s tribe, which has been studied by Roman Rausch, there must have existed at least another one. It is only attested through a few proper names, mostly toponyms.
The invention of constructed languages within literature, as without, has historically tended to be a Utopian project. The aesthetic process of glossopoeia, as described by J.R.R. Tolkein in his seminal 1931 lecture 'A Secret Vice', has... more
The invention of constructed languages within literature, as without, has historically tended to be a Utopian project. The aesthetic process of glossopoeia, as described by J.R.R. Tolkein in his seminal 1931 lecture 'A Secret Vice', has primarily been derived from the author's 'pleasure' in creating languages that in turn 'breed a mythology'. Their invention is led by the creator's desire to invent plausible and rich linguistic environments in which to locate and enhance their fictional world-building.
While linguistic Utopians have continually striven (and failed) to reverse Babel and develop a global means of communication, artists have sought to create rich and evocative linguistic spaces.
This phylum of linguistic artistry still thrives today, especially within the fantasy and science fiction genres, and in the popularity of diverting creations like Klingon and the proliferation of aesthetic Conlang groups.
However, Anthony Burgess broke with literary tradition by developing Nadsat as a simplistic ideolect which functioned, in keeping with the principles of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, to
expose the limitations of language in a technological dystopia. Just as the Cold War nightmare of the Ludovico technique places limitations on human free will in A Clockwork Orange, so the brainwashing process of reading Nadsat functions to limit both freedom of expression and understanding.
Burgess's conjunction of techno-nightmare and linguistic limitation has proven to be prophetic fifty years on from the publication of A Clockwork Orange, as contemporary technologies of communication, such as SMS messaging and the internet, have generated similarly debased argots,
including l33t and txtspk. In this paper, I intend to demonstrate that the world presaged by Burgess in his other renowned dystopia, The Wanting Seed, where the works of Shakespeare have been reduced to a “thin tome” devoid of vowels, has already come to pass.
An interview with Dr. Jessica Sams about invented languages and the environmental humanities.
A preview of the second chapter from my forthcoming book "The Elvish Writing Systems of J.R.R. Tolkien", covering Tolkien's history in writing systems, the origins of Sindarin and Quenya, the Tengwar, Cirth and Sarati, a history of Arda... more
A preview of the second chapter from my forthcoming book "The Elvish Writing Systems of J.R.R. Tolkien", covering Tolkien's history in writing systems, the origins of Sindarin and Quenya, the Tengwar, Cirth and Sarati, a history of Arda and Middle-earth, aesthetics of the written word and prerequisites for learning Elvish.