Re: [wolfrunners] Languages & SF/F (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 08:17:13 -0500
From: Sara McEnhill <mcenhill42@...>
To: wolfrunners@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [wolfrunners] Languages & SF/F

>I've been sitting in on some interesting discussions on a Constructed
>Languages mailing list, and someone wondered why sf writers don't use
>constructed/extrapolated languages more often in their works (though the
>question applies to fantasy, too).  You know--future versions of major
>languages today, or creolized variants, word-borrowings, etc.  I could
>only give my own personal answer (not enough time to learn enough
>linguistics and world languages to do a convincing job--not yet,
>anyway!), but I thought I'd ask what others' thoughts on the subject
>are.  :-)  I know it's always a pleasure for me to see a well-designed
>conlang in a sf/f work (I was disappointed to learn that the mri tongue
>in Cherryh's Faded Sun was from Tuareg!), even though I can't aspire to
>that myself.
>
>Any insights?
>
>YHL
I've actually got a story in my "To Do" pile that is going to require a
constructed language. My problem has been to find the right language to
use as my model (I'm looking at the languages based on syllables rather
than single letters for the writing system.) Time is also an issue,
because once I find a language, I want to spend some time becoming
familiar with it before I start modifying it into a constructed language.

Sara

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