Re: Alexarchus the Conlanger(?)

Thanks, Dan, for the Athenaeus on-line.  I especially like the exasperated
comparison to the Sybil.

I looked up Peter Green in our library, and he references a certain William
W. Tarn, Alexander the Great, vol. 2 (Cambridge 1948), who said this about
our ancient, rich eccentric who had his own City of Heaven: "Now it was
proper for a World-State, like an ideal State, to have a language of its
own, like the world before the Tower of Babel...; besides, speaking with
'tongues'--strange words--gave to Greeks a suggestion of divine inspiration;
and Alexarchus the philogoist did create a special language.  Why he did so,
however, is none too clear.  It has been suggested that it was proper for a
god to have a language of his own; that is a possible explanation.  It could
no doubt be treated as just a game, as children invent private language to
mystify their elders.  But, though there is no sign that any one ever used
it but Alexarchus himself, I think he invented it as a language for the
World-State of his dream, just as people to-day amuse themselves by
inventing 'universal' languages, like Esperanto or Ido."

:)

Sally



----- Original Message -----
From: "Andreas Johansson" <andjo@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 7:15 PM
Subject: Alexarchus the Conlanger(?)


>I came across a piece about a certain Hellenistic aristocrat named
>Alexarchus in
> Peter Green's "Alexander to Actium". This apparently excentric gentleman,
> a
> brother of Cassander, is supposed to have have founded an utopianist city
> called Ouranopolis ("City of Heaven") on the Athos peninsula, for which he
> is
> said to have made a language; Green writes that "he was a linguist, who
> invented a language for his foundation: a specimen perserved by Athenaeus
> looks
> like the Greek equivalent of Anthony Burgess's Nadsat in _A Clockwork
> Orange_,
> foreign loanwords oddly compounded. It would be interesting to know if he
> actually got people to talk that way."
>
> Anyone here know more about this intriguing project?
>
>                                           Andreas
>

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