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200 reviews for:
The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building
David J. Peterson
4.1 AVERAGE
200 reviews for:
The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building
David J. Peterson
4.1 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
funny
informative
inspiring
If you want to know a crash course to linguistics and making your own language, this is a very good book for that
Yay! My first book of 2016. So I was gifted this for Christmas from a great friend, and let me just say this was one of my best gifts ever. I was immediately intrigued, because I love both language and Game of Thrones.
The book was awesome. It catered a lot of those who wanted to create their own language, with tips and tricks, and while I was not in that group, I felt I gained a lot as a viewer and reader of genres and shows with created languages. I never really realized how much effort and time went into the languages that surrounded the shows I loved until [b:The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building|24611649|The Art of Language Invention From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building|David J. Peterson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430758353s/24611649.jpg|44222795] talked about all of the different ways a language can be created and added to. He thought about evolution and about how his languages would change over time and it was really quite amazing.
The book also helped with understanding the different ways that foreign languages are constructed, and for me, I thought it might actually help with learning a second language. You can tell he has a lot of passion for what he does, and he's fantastic at it. I didn't even know the word "conlang" before reading this book, let alone what it entailed; however, now I feel I could explain some concepts pretty well to others, and I would like to go out and read about some other languages created, whether it be for books/tv or just for fun.
Overall, would recommend to most anyone. Great book, and very interesting.
The book was awesome. It catered a lot of those who wanted to create their own language, with tips and tricks, and while I was not in that group, I felt I gained a lot as a viewer and reader of genres and shows with created languages. I never really realized how much effort and time went into the languages that surrounded the shows I loved until [b:The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building|24611649|The Art of Language Invention From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building|David J. Peterson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430758353s/24611649.jpg|44222795] talked about all of the different ways a language can be created and added to. He thought about evolution and about how his languages would change over time and it was really quite amazing.
The book also helped with understanding the different ways that foreign languages are constructed, and for me, I thought it might actually help with learning a second language. You can tell he has a lot of passion for what he does, and he's fantastic at it. I didn't even know the word "conlang" before reading this book, let alone what it entailed; however, now I feel I could explain some concepts pretty well to others, and I would like to go out and read about some other languages created, whether it be for books/tv or just for fun.
Overall, would recommend to most anyone. Great book, and very interesting.
funny
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
funny
informative
This is the last of the three books about conlangs, that I decided to read this summer and while the other two made me reaaaally want to create my own conlang, this one made me realise how difficult it actually is. Nevertheless, a fascinating read and I’m very glad I read it.
funny
informative
fast-paced
A great guide for anyone who wants to learn how to conlang
First, I should preface this by saying that I am probably not the intended audience for this book. While I have not been a prolific conlanger, I've probably dabbled in it for at least the time that Peterson has, even though I've only produced sketches. I've been a lurker on the conlang listserv since the late 90s/early 2000s. Not to mention, I have a minor in linguistics (admittedly, a far cry from Peterson's MA, but nonetheless...). So I am neither new to conlanging nor wholly unfamiliar with the basic linguistics concepts in this book. Some of the less basic concepts, I did have to look up, and a couple are not even defined in the book's glossary (like aorist, mentioned one of the case studies but not listed in the glossary or mentioned in the verb section; I looked it up because I am a linguistics nerd, but woe betide the more casual reader who only picked it up because they saw Dothraki on the cover).
All this to say: I found it a decent overview, but fairly uneven: overly tedious in the areas which fascinate him, frustratingly bare in areas which do not. For the former, the explanation of noun cases is a particularly grating example; there's only so many times I can read the following before my eyes start to bleed: "The X case is used when the action of the sentence is Y. This case often gets used for other things, but this is its basic sense. Below is an example from conlang I created."
For the latter, the entire verb section is barely more than a sketch; because he finds them uninteresting and hard, no one else might be interested. As I do find verbs to be fascinating (and, conversely, find noun case to be less interesting), this was frustrating. We're all allowed to have our own artistic and academic interests, of course, but as this is supposed to be an overview, it fell a bit flat.
He also says very little about syntax, except a bare explanation of word order and head-final vs head initial, even though syntactic rules and syntactic transformations are usually very important for understanding a language (must be his addiction to noun cases).
Also disappointing was the over-reliance on his own conlangs for examples, rather than natlangs or even other conlangs. While there are examples in a limited set of natlangs, the fact that he uses his own languages so frequently does a bit of a disservice, both to other conlangers (who have their own styles) and to the purported audience, aspiring new conlangers, as well as to the craft of conlanging that he is trying to encourage to flourish. Peterson, for all that he's worked on different languages in very disparate projects, has a pretty distinctive style, one that's different than mine or the other well known conlangers he mentions. By not exposing his readers to these other styles, or to more diverse examples of natural languages, he's implying, even without intending to (and, from what I can tell, I don't think he means to), that his style is the default or exemplary.
All this to say: I found it a decent overview, but fairly uneven: overly tedious in the areas which fascinate him, frustratingly bare in areas which do not. For the former, the explanation of noun cases is a particularly grating example; there's only so many times I can read the following before my eyes start to bleed: "The X case is used when the action of the sentence is Y. This case often gets used for other things, but this is its basic sense. Below is an example from conlang I created."
For the latter, the entire verb section is barely more than a sketch; because he finds them uninteresting and hard, no one else might be interested. As I do find verbs to be fascinating (and, conversely, find noun case to be less interesting), this was frustrating. We're all allowed to have our own artistic and academic interests, of course, but as this is supposed to be an overview, it fell a bit flat.
He also says very little about syntax, except a bare explanation of word order and head-final vs head initial, even though syntactic rules and syntactic transformations are usually very important for understanding a language (must be his addiction to noun cases).
Also disappointing was the over-reliance on his own conlangs for examples, rather than natlangs or even other conlangs. While there are examples in a limited set of natlangs, the fact that he uses his own languages so frequently does a bit of a disservice, both to other conlangers (who have their own styles) and to the purported audience, aspiring new conlangers, as well as to the craft of conlanging that he is trying to encourage to flourish. Peterson, for all that he's worked on different languages in very disparate projects, has a pretty distinctive style, one that's different than mine or the other well known conlangers he mentions. By not exposing his readers to these other styles, or to more diverse examples of natural languages, he's implying, even without intending to (and, from what I can tell, I don't think he means to), that his style is the default or exemplary.
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
I've read this book after having it on my shelves for several years. This will seem strange to anyone who knows how I spend my time (building a world with invented languages), especially considering that The Art of language invention is written by possibly the world's only professional language inventor, David J. Peterson—conlanger to the stars (or to several well-known TV shows, anyway). However, I hadn't actually realised what was in it: I had assumed it was a book about the conlanging world, like Arika Okrent's In the land of invented languages, which is to say something I'd like to read, but not necessarily something I urgently need to. It turns out to be a practical manual, like Mark Rosenfelder's The Language construction kit, a book to which I refer continually. In fact, preparatory to working on a new language, my usual procedure is to re-read the Rosenfelder books I own, and as I'm about to embark on another conlanging project, I thought I'd start by reading Peterson's book (now somebody's told me what's in it).
It turns out to be written in a very engaging, lighthearted style, quite similar to Rosenfelder's. Linguistics is incredibly hard to get your head around, so this is probably not a coincidence. The book is enjoyable to read, and sweetens the pill of its mind-bending concepts considerably. Where it differs from Rosenfelder, at least his first book, is its emphasis on evolution. Rather than simply giving you the tools to make up something plausible, Peterson continually encourages the aspiring conlanger to derive every feature of their language from an imagined history—not just words, but syntax, case structure, the writing system, the works. This could feel like quite an 'advanced' approach—certainly, Rosenfelder presents it as such, starting the beginner off with simple 'naming languages', and presenting language families as something to think about later. I would say, in general, that Peterson goes in harder and deeper from the off, with some quite hard to grasp linguistic concepts. It's hard for me to judge how these would strike me as a novice, since I'm no longer a novice (although I'm very far from being a linguist), but my feeling is that he explains these ideas clearly, and that most interested readers will get a handle on them without too much difficulty.
For myself, I've learned a great deal from reading the book. Mainly, I've learned to think about language as a more dynamic creature, something that flexes and mutates, rather than something that leaps from version to version. Those kinds of leap will probably be the closest that my own languages actually get to evolution, as I'm developing them for the purpose of building societies and telling stories, rather than for them to be admired and appreciated by other conlangers, and I have limited time to give to this aspect of my work. But having that processual, iterative understanding of language more clearly in mind is certainly going to help me to imagine the linguistic narrative of which my languages represent a snapshot. And worldbuilding is really not a process of fixing maps, languages, mythologies and histories in place—in my opinion, a well built world is a tapestry of narratives. My hope is that Peterson's book has provided me with some tools to enrich and diversify those narratives.
It turns out to be written in a very engaging, lighthearted style, quite similar to Rosenfelder's. Linguistics is incredibly hard to get your head around, so this is probably not a coincidence. The book is enjoyable to read, and sweetens the pill of its mind-bending concepts considerably. Where it differs from Rosenfelder, at least his first book, is its emphasis on evolution. Rather than simply giving you the tools to make up something plausible, Peterson continually encourages the aspiring conlanger to derive every feature of their language from an imagined history—not just words, but syntax, case structure, the writing system, the works. This could feel like quite an 'advanced' approach—certainly, Rosenfelder presents it as such, starting the beginner off with simple 'naming languages', and presenting language families as something to think about later. I would say, in general, that Peterson goes in harder and deeper from the off, with some quite hard to grasp linguistic concepts. It's hard for me to judge how these would strike me as a novice, since I'm no longer a novice (although I'm very far from being a linguist), but my feeling is that he explains these ideas clearly, and that most interested readers will get a handle on them without too much difficulty.
For myself, I've learned a great deal from reading the book. Mainly, I've learned to think about language as a more dynamic creature, something that flexes and mutates, rather than something that leaps from version to version. Those kinds of leap will probably be the closest that my own languages actually get to evolution, as I'm developing them for the purpose of building societies and telling stories, rather than for them to be admired and appreciated by other conlangers, and I have limited time to give to this aspect of my work. But having that processual, iterative understanding of language more clearly in mind is certainly going to help me to imagine the linguistic narrative of which my languages represent a snapshot. And worldbuilding is really not a process of fixing maps, languages, mythologies and histories in place—in my opinion, a well built world is a tapestry of narratives. My hope is that Peterson's book has provided me with some tools to enrich and diversify those narratives.
This was interesting, but quite dry at parts and now I am even more disappointed at my inability to roll my rs