Miriam
Constructed Languages
Friday I watched a very inspiring presentation about Na'vi, the language invented for the movie avatar. Actually, I'm not so much into conlangs and prefer to learn natural languages but from a linguistic point of view constructed languages are very interesting.

Are you interested in constructed languages? Have you ever learnt one, either for communicating with others (e.g. Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Interslavic etc.) or because you like a movie/TV series (e.g. Klingon, Sindarin, High Valyrian, Dothraki, Na'vi)? Have you ever created a language yourself?

If you studied a constructed language: What level did you reach? How did you keep yourself motivated? Did you find people to practice with?

If you didn't study a constructed language: What keeps you from doing so?

Edit: I just realised that I've posted the exact same topic three year ago already: <a href="https://www.italki.com/discussion/146311" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.italki.com/discussion/146311</a>; (16th of May 2017)
May 31, 2020 8:25 AM
Comments · 23
7
My understanding of modern Hebrew (from conversations with Hebrew speakers) is that this is essentially a constructed language.
 
It was developed following the foundation of Israel in 1948 as a means of asserting cultural independence, drawing on ancient Hebraic texts and grammar.
 
Yiddish, though sharing some vocabulary, was (or perhaps still is) frowned upon as it was seen as parochial and as having negative associations. Besides which it was spoken only by the Ashkenazim and not of other jews from elsewhere in the diaspora such as the Sephardim (of Spain and North Africa) or the Falashim (of Ethiopia).
 
I am intrigued by the notion that a language could be constructed essentially <em>de novo</em>, and then become the national language of several million people.
 
Perhaps a native Hebrew speaker or teacher might like to comment?
 


 
Thanks, Miriam for posting another interesting topic.    
   
(I generally no longer participate here as actual “discussion” is extremely rare – I just happened to read your post after using another language learning site).
 

May 31, 2020
6
Constructed Languages is a sand-ground for linguists and they do not go out of boundaries of intellect of people who has constructed them. Real life brings much more mess to a process of language development. Of course, constructed languages may give fun for particular groups of people, they are a good range for experiments, but nothing more.
Here is the video about one of the aspects of language - numbers - https://youtu.be/l4bmZ1gRqCc, displaying what things may really exit, about which our dear friend Horatio, and all who are not against him, could not have ever dreamed in Heaven, Hell, or Earth.

June 1, 2020
6
I've never studied a constructed language, but a few years ago, I read an essay on nouns in Klingon by Marc Okrand, the linguist who created Klingon as a language with syntax, grammar, etc. He'd done scholarly work with Native American languages prior to that.

After looking just at Okrand's work on Klingon nouns, I was amazed by the amount of detail. In his Klingon noun suffixes, for example, he created a suffix "-qoq" to mean "so-called." The example from the essay is that the Klingon word roj ("peace") can be modified with the suffix "-qoq" to become "so-called peace." Adding a small suffix makes the difference between "peace" and a "so-called peace" that the speaker doesn't believe exists or perhaps doesn't believe will continue.

I enjoyed reading that essay on Klingon nouns, and I think if I were very involved in a particular community already, I would be more interested in studying a constructed language. In other words, if I were already a Trekkie, learning Klingon would seem more fun. It's a language belonging to Trekkie culture, and I don't see myself getting much into Star Trek beyond what I am now.

Have you (or anyone else here) seen the movie Arrival (2016)? The aliens don't speak because they're squid-like and evolved to communicate via ink-writing. So it's a constructed language solely based on writing. At the time I saw the movie, I'd been thinking about how some languages are written left to right horizontally, others right to left horizontally, some right to left vertically... and I'd been wondering what other writing configurations exist/existed. Arrival was a great movie for that line of thinking!
May 31, 2020
6
@Adam
My parents were very active in the Esperanto community and met many friends there. I’m sure they’d disagree with you. They also used to speak Esperanto as “secret language” between them when I was a kid. And you can stay for free at other Esperantist’s places when you’re travelling:<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-of-the-perks-of-speaking-esperanto-free-lodging-around-the-world-1415754748" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-of-the-perks-of-speaking-esperanto-free-lodging-around-the-world-1415754748</a>;. I consider that highly useful when you’re travelling on a budget.
May 31, 2020
6
The only artificial system I have ever used was Makaton. It's not a language as such and I didn't master it. I was using it at a very basic level. It was developed to help people with a wide range of impairment express themselves, not necessarily for deaf people because they have no problem using sign language and Makaton is very limited in comparison.

There isn't one universal Makaton. Each country adjusts it, using signs from their own sign language but doesn't follow its grammar. If the person you're communicating with has any hearing, you speak as you sign. If they can see well, you can use cards with symbols as well. If they can neither see nor hear, you can do hand-under-hand signing.

My motivation was being able to communicate with children who had never "spoken" to anyone before. It took a long time to teach them a new sign but when they finally used it spontaneously, it was really rewarding. We used to practice with my colleagues, sometimes with a blindfold on, doing hand-under-hand signing.
May 31, 2020
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