Monday, February 23, 2009

Ellohay!

In yesterday's comics, a query regarding why Earth is named Earth resulted in a rabbit-chasing tale about language development, specifically two languages on earth which were invented on purpose.
Do you know what they are?

My first thought was Pig-Latin which should be enjoyed by all at some point in their life - even if just to share about what some little person is getting for Christmas without them understanding BUT I expect younger brains do the translating easier than isthay olderay indmay - don't get it? Here's a translator! And even a teaching site for those wishing to become master Pig Latin-ers.
Was I right? Was this one?
Nope.

My second guess was the language made popular by the kid's program Zoom (Come on and zooma-zooma-zooma zoom!) called Ubbi Dubbi which I just learned may predate PBS. Gubo Fubigubure. Try singing this at your next birthday party. Bet you could blow out all your candles at the same time!
But it wasn't one of the one's referenced.

There are the languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For more info on these languages look here, here, there AND here. Extraordinarily interesting & obviously popular (especially since the movies) but STILL NOT one mentioned.

According to Beakman & Jax: "Most languages grow and change as our cultures change. But two languages on Earth were invented on purpose. The first is Esperanto, which was supposed to be the international language...but was a huge flop and is spoken only by a handful of kooks."
Be a kook extraordinaire - learn to speak it!

"The other on-purpose language is Klingon, spoken by Star Trek enthusiasts. Today more people speak Klingon than Esperanto." (Stan mentioned that they are also kooks - LOL)

I expect the number of folks speaking the languages which first came to my mind may outnumber them both! Whadda you think?

Andrew pointed out that both Pig-Latin & Ubbi Dubbi are English based so shouldn't count. I think all newish languages are based on some older languages so it shouldn't matter.
Your opinion?

I'llway eepkay ouyay ostedpay!
Ubi'll kubeep yubou pubostubed!
Quentasta-nye mando!
Mi teniĝos vin afiŝis
jIyajbe'

5 comments:

Alice said...

Wow! Ubbi-dubbi! Haven't used that in awhile. Kali and I used to be able to talk fluently in ubbi-dubbi without even having to stop and think about it. It was a lot of fun! And people around you had no idea at all what you were talking about. Awesome!

Bill Chapman said...

You're being unfair to Esperanto. I've used it in Europe and Africa over many years. I recommend it to your blog readers. Take a look at www.esperanto.net

Patti said...

Just quoting the paper on Esperanto. I actually heard of it in The Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison waaaay before I heard it was a "real" language.

Anonymous said...

Hi Patti!

Interesting mention of the global language Esperanto!

It's unfortunate that most people still do not know that this comparatively new language has also become a living language.

Confirmation can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670

Otherwise http://www.lernu.net ?

daynagonzalez said...

Great post Patti!! Owen tries to speak pig latin to me ALL THE TIME but he has to think way too hard...I'll have to teach the boys ubbi-dubbi...they'd love that.