This may sound strange, speaking about a book detailing the history of artificial languages, but I couldn't put it down. This book was informative and funny all at once.
Okrent begins at the end, with Klingon, which seems like a lonely and ecctentric little hobby, but she promises she will get back to it.
Then she takes us to the twelfth century and the mysterious, private language of a German nun. From there, she takes us through various stages and fads of language invention. We meet the eighteenth century men of reason who set out to invent perfect, philosophical languages, but who ended up producing complex languages that were completely unusable. We see the nineteenth century utopian language builders, who only wanted a common language that would heal the divisions among peoples, but who ended up splintering into an array of competing and hostile language camps. We see the science-based languages of the twentieth century, one of which has since proven useful as a tool for teaching handicapped children, and another that has taught computer scientists to be aware of their own thinking.
She comes back to Klingon at the end of the book, and we meet the modern conlang enthusiasts, who are an interesting and linguistically well-informed bunch indeed. Anyone with an interest in language - invented or otherwise - will enjoy this book. ]]>
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