Re: Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages

I would concur with the sentiments below. I made sure to buy the book for my
library (i.e., the one I work in) when I was in the Literature & Language
department. One of its selling points is that there aren't that many (or any)
books covering "fictional and fantastic languages" out there. According to
Amazon: It should be noted that this book is thus far the only one with the
Library of Congress subject heading "Imaginary languages--Encyclopedias." So,
the fact that this is a unique resource makes it valuable for library
collections. However, as a purchase for a personal library, I would wait. Use
WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/65340989&tab=holdings?loc=usa#tabs to
find a library near you to get a look at it. Personally, I would like to have
seen it also include some "well known" constructed artlangs (like Ithkuil,
Brythonic, or Verdurian).

> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Fri, 6 Feb 2009 21:40:19 +0100
> From:    =?iso-8859-1?q?J=F6rg_Rhiemeier?=
> <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
> Subject: Re: Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic
> Languages
>
> Hallo!
>
> On Fri, 6 Feb 2009 11:17:48 -0500, Israel Noletto wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know this book Encyclopedia of Fictional
> and Fantastic (By Tim
> > Conley, Stephen Cain, Ursula K. Le Guin; ISBN
> 9780313331886) Languages? Is
> > it worth buying? How many and which conlangs does it
> present?
>
> The local university library has it, and I have read it.  I
> was
> a bit disappointed - it is not the fat cover-all volume one
> might
> expect from its title, and it does not give much
> information about
> the individual languages (so don't expect grammar
> sketches!).
>
> It does list not only well-elaborated languages such as
> Quenya,
> Sindarin or Klingon, but also many languages that are
> mentioned in
> works of fiction but never actually worked out by either
> the author
> or anyone else.  It also does not cover languages from the
> Internet
> conlanging scene, only languages from more or less
> well-known novels,
> films, etc. (including some 18th and 19th century works).
> It gives
> web addresses of pages about many of the languages
> mentioned;
> however, many of those links are dead by now :(
>
> I'd say that $75 (amazon.com) is a way too high price
> for this
> 272-page book.  Not that it was a bad book, for $25 I'd
> buy it,
> but $75 is out of the question.
>
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