Johanna asked Genevieve Cogman:

I loved The Invisible Library and the linguistics of the Language fascinate me. (How did it originate? Has it got regional/social dialects and accents? Does it sound to others like their own accent of their native language or like the one they expect the speaker to have? Is the connection between words in the Language and their meanings as arbitrary as in "regular" languages?) Will I find out more in the other books?

Genevieve Cogman I'm afraid I'm not going to give much detail about this - partly because I'm not trained in linguistics myself, and would rather avoid mistakes. The Language is provided by the Library, which constantly provides new vocabulary. (If you want to know how this is done - well, so do a lot of junior Librarians.) It sounds to others like their own accent of their native language. There is some more detail in later books.

If you want something analogous, you might like to check out Ursula Le Guin's _Wizard of Earthsea_ and the references to all the young would-be wizards learning vocabulary. It's not quite bad for Librarians, but there are similarities.

. . . Amongst them in the Tower's high room Kurremkarmerruk sat on a high seat, writing down lists of names that must be learned before the ink faded at midnight leaving the parchment blank again. It was cold and half-dark and always silent there except for the scratching of the Master's pen and the sighing, maybe, of a student who must learn before midnight the name of every cape, point, bay, sound, inlet, channel, harbour, shallows, reef and rock of the shores of Lossow, a little islet of the Pelnish sea. If the student complained the Master might say nothing, but lengthen the list; or he might say, 'He who would be Seamaster must know the true name of every drop of water in the sea.'

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