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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