Re: Lunatic Lovers of Language

Hello!

I own a copy of "Lunatic Lovers of Language" and have read it.  Its
assessment of language creation is unflaggingly jaundiced;  its assessment
of language creators is spelled out in its title.

Yaguello, the author, is certainly a good scholar;  her treatment of
philosophical languages is erudite, though not as complete as the treatment
in Umberto Eco's "Search for the Perfect Language."   Auxlangs are briefly
described in one of the appendices, and mentioned in the text.
A much better presentation on Esperanto and Volapuk can be found in Andrew
Large's "The Artificial Language Movement."

I read nothing in LLOL about the secret vice;  any knowledge she might have
had about conlanging as a hobby wasn't presented in her book.

I think that Yaguello's book is worth reading, despite her supercilious and
incomplete treatment of her subject matter.  But I don't know why she would
put her book on Langmaker.  Maybe she was trying to insult all us
conlangers.  Or maybe she was hoping that her book would prevent some of us
from repeating the conceptual mistakes embodied in attempts at
"philosophical languages."  Or maybe she would like more people to buy her
book, and figured, perhaps correctly, that she could find more customers
among the conlang crowd?  The last seems most likely to me, but who knows?

Jim G.

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