Saluton, Language Nerd! If you don’t recognize the greeting, you obviously don’t know Esperanto. Most other folks don’t either; it just didn’t seem to catch on. But I’m wondering: has there ever been a completely contrived language that hit the big time and became the common tongue in some corner of the world? -Robbie *** […]
Dear Language Nerd, I am a huge fan of the Game of Thrones shows, and I was wondering, when the characters speak in the horse rider language, are they just saying nonsense? Or do the words mean something? – Amerila James *** Zhey Amerila, Nonsense? Does a language with two kinds of noun-noun compounds and […]
Dear Language Nerd, What do you think are the best and worst examples of language in fantasy novels? – Robert S. *** Dear Robert, Best is easy – for my money, there’s no one like Tolkien. Tolkien was a linguist first, author second, though damn good at both. He began by inventing his own language […]