LING1912

As far back as we can tell, there have been thousands of natural languages spoken by humans the world over—more than 7,000 today, according to authoritative counts. And yet for at least a thousand years, some people have insisted on inventing languages of their own. Their reasons for doing so have been varied: some hoped to create a language that can facilitate communication across language divides without favoring any particular natural languages. Others wanted to correct perceived flaws in natural languages, such as vagueness, or ambiguity, or lack of universality. Still others aimed to design languages for exploring structural possibilities that do not seem to be exploited by natural ones. Or they sought to lend a bit more veridicality to their imaginary worlds and their imaginary inhabitants, or perhaps just to scratch an aesthetic or creative itch.

In this course you will learn about the myriad properties of natural languages, and decide what relationship an invented language of your own will bear to them. Will you seek to imitate them, to combine some of their properties in unforeseen ways, to make the most euphonious (or cacophonous) language you can imagine, or to create one with the complex and precise engineering of a fancy watch? Each week you will refine your answer to this question, and step by step you will find your way into the community of language inventors.

About the Instructor

Jean-Philippe Marcotte is an associate professor in the Institute of Linguistics. At an impressionable age, he became fascinated with the invented languages of J.R.R. Tolkien, discovered that the author had been a philologist, and made sure to pick a college with a philology course. But introduction to linguistics was a prerequisite, and JP has been on that sidetrack ever since. He has been teaching at the University of Minnesota for many years.

001475

Every Fall