Re: Iain M. Banks: Marain language

On 6/19/06, Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:

> Anyone read Banks' books?
I've read just two or three of them, and none
very recently.

> I found a few words of Banks himself about the conlang used in his
> science fiction books:
http://homepages.compuserve.de/Mostral/artikel/marain.html
>
> Unfortunately, this is mainly only about the writing system -- not
> much about the language.  But still, that's something.
>
> What do you think?
My impression is that it's not a very well-developed
conlang; if it has any phonology or lexicon
it's more than I've seen evidence of in the
few books I've read yet, or Banks fan sites
I've looked at (admittedly few).  It mostly
seems to consist of some sketchy description
of the grammar and semantics, with
more or less Whorfian asides.

I plan to read his other Culture books eventually,
& if I find more about Marain when I do,
I'll post here.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry