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Dreaming of a Perfect Language [45min 18sec]
June 01, 2009

In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language
Human language is a miracle, whether it’s English or Chinese or Swahili. But for some humans, it’s just not good enough.
For hundreds of years, intrepid dreamers, visionaries, madmen and women, cranks and idealists have been inventing languages. Some for fun — Klingon. Some for world peace — Esperanto. Some for a good yarn — Tolkien’s “elvish.”

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And a whole lot more for all kinds of reasons — Frendo, Glosa, Rikchik, Toki Pona. It is a magnificent, persistent obsession.

This hour, On Point: The history of invented languages, and why it never ends.

wbur.org/onpoint/2009/06/01/in

A Year in Language, Day 297: Toki Pona

[...]
One can often place a conlang, historically, by its purpose. Most medieval conlangs were either for secret societies or esoteric/mystical purposes. Around the later 19th century we see the rise of the “auxlang”, languages meant to unite the world or at least some region. Toki Pona is a prototypical modern conlang; designed primarily to explore ones own consciousness, and perhaps the world outside as well.

ayearinlanguage.tumblr.com/pos

Charles Zinn
Projects Blog Archive
I’m a software engineering student at the University of Waterloo.

[...]

I like learning conlangs:

Mi parolas Esperanton plej flue el ĉi tiaj lingvoj.
.i mi di’a tadni la .lojban. noi banli
tenpo lili la mi kama sona e toki pona.
I write stuff. Or I’m starting to write stuff, at least. Check out my blog.

charleszinn.ca

Invent a language

Challenge 16
We each use language every day. What languages do you speak?

Have you ever wondered where language comes from? Most languages developed over a very long time, because people needed a way to communicate with one another. Other languages have been invented for specific purposes.

Esperanto was invented to be easy to learn so people from different countries could understand each other. Computer languages like Python and Lua were invented to help humans give instructions to computers. Toki Pona was invented to see how simple a language could be.

Today, try inventing your own language. See what ideas you can express with your language.

makerbox.org.nz/daily-challeng

From Cao’s statement: “I am interested in globalization and how it shapes modern society, written language, and visual vernaculars. To do this, I implement speculative languages like toki pona to experiment with (letter)form, metalanguage, computation, and image. This language is ​posited as a future language to eliminate the obstacles caused by language in international communication so that people can quickly interpret information in an unfamiliar context. My thesis work focuses on developing a process in which to examine various modes of communication and future forms of written language. In synthesizing languages of the past and present, both speculative and the applied, I am developing an understanding of the potential of universal languages. I use these communication methods as a means of informing my work to various degrees.”

mcad-mfa.com/thesis-reviews-yu

"I don’t have time for politics," Whitsett said. "That’s ridiculous, during a pandemic, that they think I have time for a screening. ... I have people that need me.”

eu.detroitnews.com/story/news/

"I don’t have time for politics," Whitsett said. "That’s ridiculous, during a pandemic, that they think I have time for a screening. ... I have people that need me.”

eu.detroitnews.com/story/news/

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