Re: Alexarchus the Conlanger(?)

Addendum:  I think it very likely that Thomas More, scholar that he was,
could have read about Alexarchus and his Ouranapolis in Athenaeus. He
remarks that his Utopians have been exposed to Greek, and I think to Persian
as well.

But then, this account drives home how universal this impulse is in us:
invent a country, a people, a language, maps, ... get rich and make it all
real.

S.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sally Caves" <scaves@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 10:12 PM
Subject: 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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