Re: Are conlangs fictional? - Brian Aldiss

At 11:33 PM +0200 03/22/02, M. =?UNKNOWN?B?SSSS?= wrote:
>On the subject, how about Brian Aldiss, the author of Helliconia books? Does
>anyone know, whether his languages are fictional or fictional? ;) That is,
>did he ever actually make languages, or was he just describing something
>that existed just for the characters of the story?
>When I first time read the Helliconia Summer, I wanted desperately to learn
>Sibish, but was sure that it didn't exist in real world.
Aldiss acknowledges the assistance of a philologist (forgot the
name), but the language snippets don't seem very convincing as being
part of a whole.

BTW, Austin Tappan Wright's _Islandia_ has just been reprinted and is
now available in paperback for about $22.00. It contains some
invented language, and is an excellent example of an invented
culture. It was recommended here a while ago (I forgot by who), and I
took up the challenge then. I enjoyed the book a great deal.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga                  Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Man deth swa he byth thonne he mot swa he wile.
'A man does as he is when he can do what he wants.'

- Old English Proverb

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