Re: History of constructed languages

> Mark Jones wrote:
>
> > Hi Conlangers,
> >
> > I've been asked to take part in a radio interview about languages
> > constructed for works of dramatic fiction (to be broadcast on BBC
> > Radio 4's
> > Front Row in the UK).
> > [snip]
> >
> > Anyway, I'm far from an expert, and I'd like to know what the first
> > constructed language for media use might've been. I'm not talking here
> > about
> > Esperanto or Volapuek etc., but a fictional languages for use in fiction.
>
> Well, you've obviously got Tolkien.  That's one of the early examples -
> from the 1910s onwards. That's the earliest I can think of, at least
> with a grammar of any size.
There are previous examples, but they're much less developed. I'm
pretty sure that there are fragments of language that appear in
_Gulliver's Travels_ by Swift, but I doubt that there is much of a
grammar behind them.

I wonder if non-English literatures provide any other examples.

--
JS Bangs
jaspax@gmail.com
http://jaspax.com

"I could buy you a drink
I could tell you all about it
I could tell you why I doubted
And why I still believe."
 - Pedro the Lion

Reply