Re: Martian conlangs?

From: "Fredrik Ekman" <ekman@...>
Subject: Martian conlangs?


> I have a soft spot for conlangs used by Martian concultures, especially
> native Martian cultures in the Burroughs/Wells/Bradbury tradition,
> although I am also interested in conlangs for future Martian colonies.
>
> Is anyone currently working on something along those lines? If you do, I
> would love to hear about it.
>
> Now that I think about it I cannot recall a single Martian language that
> really qualifies as a full-fledged conlang.
It's certainly not in the same style as many other Martian concultures, but
C. S. Lewis wrote a book set on Mars, entitled "Out of the Silent Planet".
There were three different races living there, each with its own language,
as we are told.  The main character is a philologist, so we get to hear a
few of his thoughts on the common tongue of the region, as well as a few of
the words.  It looks like he put some real thought into this.  The
alternation between (for example) "sorn" and "séroni" really interested me
upon reading it.  He throws in a little more in the next two books,
"Perelandra" (whose title is in Hressa-Hlab) and "That Hideous Strength",
but he never really gets into the linguistic details.  My guess is that he,
like most of us, assumed everyone wouldn't be interested.

On a side note, we've remarked on similar traits shared by many members of
this list before.  I'd bet that C. S. Lewis would have fit in quite nicely
here, not only was he interested in conlanging and conculturing, I think he
was also a synaesthete.  In one of his books he refers to a "purple sort of
smell", and from what people tell me, most people would never associate a
color and a smell.  Anyway, just something I found interesting.

Joe Fatula

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