Elvish More: Ling of Conlangs

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

We can learn a lot about human language by thinking about the artificial languages that people construct for imaginative purposes. In this course, we will learn about the grammatical diversity of human languages and how conlangs in some ways reflect, and in some ways do not reflect, that diversity. We will also discuss common ideologies of the relationship between language and society, and how those ideologies are represented in the conlangs of fiction and movies. Over the course of the semester, students will invent their own conlang and fictional society that speaks it.