Imaginary Languages: Myths, Utopias, Fantasies, Illusions, and Linguistic Fictions

by Marina Yaguello, Erik Butler (Translator)

An exploration of the practice of inventing languages, from speaking in tongues to utopian schemes of universality to the discoveries of modern linguistics.

In Imaginary Languages , Marina Yaguello explores the history and practice of inventing languages, from religious speaking in tongues to politically utopian schemes of universality to the discoveries of modern linguistics. She looks for imagined languages that are autonomous systems, complete unto themselves and meant for communal use; imaginary, and therefore unlike both natural languages and historically attested languages; and products of an individual effort to lay hold of language. Inventors of languages, Yaguello writes, are madly in they love an object that belongs to them only to the extent that they also share it with a community.

Yaguello investigates the sources of imaginary languages, in myths, dreams, and utopias. She takes readers on a tour of languages invented in literature from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including that in More’s Utopia , Leibniz’s “algebra of thought,” and Bulwer-Lytton’s linguistic fiction. She examines the linguistic fantasies (or madness) of Georgian linguist Nikolai Marr and Swiss medium Hélène Smith; and considers the quest for the true philosophical language. Yaguello finds two abiding (and somewhat contradictory) the diversity of linguistic experience, which stands opposed to unifying endeavors, and, on the other hand, features shared by all languages (natural or not) and their users, which justifies the universalist hypothesis.

Recent years have seen something of a boom in invented languages, whether artificial languages meant to facilitate international communication or imagined languages constructed as part of science fiction worlds. In Imaginary Languages (an updated and expanded version of the earlier Les Fous du langage , published in English as Lunatic Lovers of Language ), Yaguello shows that the invention of language is above all a passionate, dizzying labor of love.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, History, Language, Reference

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2022

About the author

Marina Yaguello (née en 1944) est une linguiste, professeur émérite à l'Université de Paris VII. De langue maternelle russe, elle travaille sur le français, l'anglais et le wolof. Dans l'introduction de son ouvrage Alice au pays du langage, Marina Yaguello prend position sur le fait que la linguistique n'est pas qu'une affaire de spécialiste. Ainsi, elle cite l'Oulipo comme un repaire de linguistes. Universitaire et linguiste de renom, auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur le langage et les langues, a pris un virage radical en 2000, en ouvrant un atelier-showroom à Paris, dans le Marais, où elle se livre à sa passion de collectionneuse de parures et de créatrice : elle crée des colliers, des bagues.

Reviews

[makena · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We can imagine the logophile in a study crammed with books; all around lie vast quantities of information yet to be collated, classified, listed, and indexed on countless tables and cards. A delirium of naming, taxonomical madness, has seized this solitary figure. Everything in the world awaits its true name."

[Mad Hab · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is just amazing!

[Samuel Banina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful as a overview of "linguistic madmen" as the text puts it, especially with the voluminous appendix of excerpts from key primary sources. The overall theme which establishes a spectrum from reconstructed language to constructed language to ecstatic language was interesting context for the explorations and reflections in this book, which does read more like a collection of essays than anything else.

Overall I found the first half more of a series of history lessons, but the latter half was more interesting. The chapter on glossolalia and what gives the best examples of it a sense of language, without really being one, was very interesting and surprisingly tied back into the theme of proto-languages. I also loved the final chapter discussing the role of natural languages in society, contrasted against all the other artificial linguistic pursuits discussed throughout the book.

This book excels as a survey of early linguistic thinking with ample pointers for further reading. For someone wanting to get some more compelling anecdotes and deeper dive into constructed languages in particular, I'd recommend Okrent's "In the Land of Invented Languages" instead. And if you want more linguistic meat, Peterson's "The Art of Language Invention". The latter also has more emphasis on the artistic choices that go into constructed languages.

[John Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Language is strange because people are strange. Humans aren’t the only entities on this planet that communicate with one another, but as far as I know, we’re the only ones who fabricate languages, sometimes on the fly and even unintentionally. Example: An entire chapter of this book discusses a medium named Hélène Smith, who, during a series of séances, spoke in a trance in a language she said was Martian.

Other material in Marina Yaguello’s wide-ranging book concerns the effort to identify the “lingua adamica,” meaning the language Adam spoke; attempts to improve or replace existing languages, of which Esperanto may be the most familiar (an impressive two-and-a-half-page table lists the “Families of Constructed Languages”); and work that’s been done to invent an appropriate language for an imagined culture or a private community, including the “lingua ignota” developed by Hildegard von Bingen for uncertain purposes, the Newspeak language devised by George Orwell for 1984, and the Klingon language used by the Klingon culture, devised for various embodiments of the Star Trek universe.

There’s much more here. The subtitle captures the wide range of subjects Yaguello touches on: myths, utopias, fantasies, illusions, and linguistic fictions. This book is itself an unusual and, to my mind, unorthodox creation. It sadly lacks an index, as I found when I tried to refresh my memory of what it said about Anthony Burgess. About 100 pages of the book are devoted to two appendices, one of which offers dozens of pages of extracts from original sources, beginning with a 1629 letter by René Descartes. Though I admit I only skimmed them, some are more fascinating than you’d expect, such as a report on Hélène Smith’s Martian (which derives mostly from French) that ends with a lexicon.

The main body of the text, at 182 pages, is concise and almost too short; it often left me wanting to know more. It’s elegant and smart. The introductory section of the chapter on Hélène Smith notes the parallel “rise of scientific thought” and “the resurgence of the irrational” at the end of the 19th century (I’m resisting the temptation to quote an entire paragraph), a situation that also applies to an earlier part of the 19th century, the setting of a historical novel I read just before this, A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance.

In short, Imaginary Languages is “tute alloga, eĉ sorĉa”—Esperanto for thoroughly captivating, even entrancing.

-----
Declaration on AI: I used Grammarly Pro in revising this text.

[Friend of the Talking Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern linguistics dates to Wiliam Jones's 1786 realization that Sanskrit is related to Latin and Greek, and has been developing ever since, but laypeople have been fascinated by language long before and to this day. People have been inventing languages for centuries, often without much understanding of how natural human language actually works.

Languages were invented for fiction, from the language of the inhabitants of the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac (yes, this was a real person) to Newspeak of George Orwell. In one 1973 science fiction novel, kidnapped Third World children are drugged and taught an artificial language based on Chomskyan linguistics.

This book also mentions international auxiliary languages such as Esperanto (there were many more), Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr, who claimed that all human languages developed from exactly four screams of primitive people, and denounced historical linguistics as bourgeois, and a spiritualist who claimed to communicate with Martians and have learned the Martian language, which was of course her native French in disguise.

Who invents languages? Basically, eccentrics. Unfortunately, unless they are linguists such as J. R. R. Tolkien, what comes out is less interesting than the real living languages with a bizarre grammar such as Georgian or extinct ones such as Hittite.

[Bri Lamb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like I was reading an imaginary language for most of this book... Not what I expected. Heavy on the philosophy and history of speaking in tongues, not as much focus on fictional/literary languages. Tolkien got 2 pages and was relegated to a portion of the appendix and poor Orwell and Burgess got even less time. If you're into really complex linguistics, with the vocabulary to go with it, and disjointed essay-style writing, then go for it. Otherwise, pass.

[Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels oddly rushed. More of an introduction to a lot of different ideas than a coherent work.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great linguistics overview of how constructed languages are formed, whether ecstatic or logically. The author's personal biases shine through in parts though, so be prepared for that.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

U-topia and u-chronia form two sides of elsewhere.

[Kaushalya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting bits but generally lackluster