book rec

[pauraque_bk]

In 1996, Zompist, whose real name is Mark Rosenfelder, started a web site about constructed languages and various other things. As a 14 year old just starting to check out the internet, I was also interested in making my own codes, ciphers, and perhaps even languages... but where to start? How was one to make a pretend language as realistic as, say, French (which I had just started learning at the time)?

Searching for information on perhaps Lycos or Infoseek, I ran into Zompist and the Language Construction Kit, a primer on basic linguistic principles that was not too hard to understand, yet still accurate and not dumbed-down. I distinctly remember being very excited, thinking this is exactly what I need, and printing it out to read and refer to.

Well, I'm twice as old now (yikes) and I know far more than twice as much about linguistics as I did then. It's amazing and wonderful how much you can learn about something without studying it formally, just via readily available books and academic publications, but what's often missing is the beginning part, the Ling 101 stuff. The internet has become excellent for that, and Zompist was one of the pioneers of it in the linguistic field. He really has done a lot over the years to educate and bring together conlangers and language afficionados, who in past decades would have been left to figure out all this stuff on their own.

My point in bringing this up? Dude has a book!

The Language Construction Kit (book!) is longer and better and stronger and faster than the web version. (Well, it's at least three of those things.) It's still an excellent stepping stone between "I loved Spanish class but I haven't studied linguistics" and being able to tackle academic works. It's still easy to read and sprinkled with Mark's deadpan humor. It's still not dumbed-down. But now it has way, way more detail, topics, and resources. And if you were to buy it or mention it to a language-loving friend, you'd be supporting a pretty cool guy that I've known half my life.

Excuse me while I go feel old now.

Comments

[conuly]

I didn't know there was a book out now!

[pauraque]

It's only been out for a couple of weeks. I waited until I'd actually read it to make a post, not that I doubted it would be good. *g*

[conuly]

Edit I can't make:

I didn't know there was a book out now! (Nor that it's been 12 years since I found the kit online. I remember printing it out at least twice!)

You want to feel old? I saw a book today for kids that's set in 1981. It wasn't written in 1981. It doesn't concern a specific historical event or climate of 1981. It's just set in 1981. It's weird! Books are supposed to be set in, you know, the past, the 60s or 30s or 50s. Not in the 80s! That's not the past! (At least it's not in my own lifetime, exactly.)

New comment: A couple of weeks? Well, I must get me a copy!

[pauraque]

I read this from someone on Twitter: If Back to the Future were remade today, and Marty McFly went back the same number of years, he would go back to 1980.

*scared*

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

I am so scared of linguistics. Periodically, whenever I've had enough time to forget the pain of the previous experience, I attempt to read something on historical linguistics and give up after a chapter or two in frustration. I might take a look at this book cuz I need something to give me the professional vocabulary, you know?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

I've just started conlanging (at a very old, old age. *cough*) and this book is really the perfect starter for someone who is just getting to know the linguistic vocab and isn't ready for everything + kitchen sink yet. "Describing Morphology" used to put me to sleep (literally, which is helpful for an insomniac) but then it stopped being soporofic once I started to pick up some of the concepts, etc.

Anyway, I just jumped in because I used to be scared of linguistics too, but I really wanted to learn because I wanted to start conlanging and zompist's book is great on many, many levels. :)

[pauraque]

That book is called Describing Morphosyntax, and it's a great book, but more for intermediate students. It was written because often linguistic fieldwork ends up being done by non-linguists, such as anthropologists and missionaries, and they need something to get them up to speed. But it's assumed that they're at least familiar with many of the concepts and have taken some classes. So it's exciting to see a book like Mark's that fills in that gap and can take people from being an absolute beginner to being able to read DM.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

doh, yes, Describing Morphosyntax. And it is good!

[pauraque]

Yeah, it sounds like you're the right audience for it. It's baffling that although foreign languages are taught in school, they don't teach the underlying concepts that would make it so much easier to understand. I mean, when was the last time you took a "conversational math" class, where you watched the teacher do math problems and then were expected to replicate them without being told how it was done?

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

I know, right? There's this fiction that high school students learn language the way toddlers learn it, but if that were the case, then language classes should be MORE immersive. The way they are now, they're sort of a useless compromise, with inadequate grammar instruction but also inadequate exposure. Of course, if I'd never taken French, I wouldn't know ANYthing about grammar, at all. Everything I know about English, I learned from Latin and French. :)

[pauraque]

inadequate grammar instruction but also inadequate exposure

Exactly.

[aunty_marion]

That sounds like the sort of book I'd love to read. Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy books nowadays (except very occasionally ones for under £1 on Amazon Marketplace which then still cost me an extra £2.75 for postage... Or ones for 50p from charity shops.), and I bet the local library hasn't got it and wouldn't consider stocking it. *sigh* Maybe I'll just re-read the Klingon Dictionary and perhaps have another bash at the 'To be or not to be' speech from Khamlet.

[pauraque]

Some libraries have a way for patrons to suggest books they'd like to see ordered, so you could give it a try. The worst they can say is no.

You can practice your Klingon on me if you like. SuvwI' Hol vIjatlh! }}:)

[aunty_marion]

Heh. I have ONE, count it, ONE (very useful) Klingon phrase.

nuqDaq yuch Dapol

I'd have to learn the 'To be or not to be' speech phonetically and parrot it. I don't think anywhere over here runs a Klingon language course (or if they do they're keeping quiet about it), and I probably couldn't afford it if they did.

Yes, our library will theoretically order books if requested. Unfortunately ... that also costs the requester money. I think it's £2 per book? Might be more. And if it's not a book that can be just 'bought' but has to be ordered from the web and from *gasp* abroad... My chances are slim.

[pauraque]

Unfortunately I'm allergic to {yuch} so that one doesn't help me much, except to stay away from it!

Have you tried the KLI mailing list? I couldn't vouch for how good it is now, but when I was on it years ago, it was very active and helpful. There was a time that I had a decent amount of written/reading fluency due to participating there, though I've forgotten a lot since then.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent - I've always loved his site, and right now I'm being held up on an original novel with quibbles about cultural appropriation that could probably be solved with a spot of conlanging.

[pauraque]

Yay!

[thimble-kiss.livejournal.com]

This is such a funny coincidence – my son told me during the Easter holiday that this book was on top of his wishlist and your post reminded me to tell the hubby to order it today. :D

[pauraque]

Sweet!

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

This looks really cool. I used to play around with the idea of invented languages in high school, but I never knew where to go with it, so it never caught fire for me as an intense pursuit. But it's all fascinating -- I remember how revelatory it was (in an abortive Chinese course I took freshman year) to see tongue-and-teeth consonant diagrams and suddenly make sense of all kinds of sound differences, to see how you could map the range of a single language within a whole field of physical possibilities. I've sometimes thought about asking you more about this stuff when you've done your language posts. But now I really want to look through the web version of this book . . .

How the hell are you, by the way? Hope all is going decently for you.