Title: In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and The Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language
Author: Arika Okrent
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Year: 2009/2010
342 pages
As a college student I'd have given it 5 stars and learned Klingon. Now I just enjoyed it. Okrent begins with a tense writing style that makes me want to reassure her that anybody who picks this up is a nerd and will only find the sometimes arch tone offputting. We all know who we are and why we're reading it, so just relax.
Okrent presents a good range of artificial languages created by dissimilar means and to different ends. It's a nice overview and introduction, suitable for lay readers but with amusements here and there for people with a background in linguistics.
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