Klingon and Esperanto Are Important Languages, Too
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 963 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2018
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Language encapsulates every part of a culture, from its history of ideas to the way its speakers perceive reality itself. And according to linguistics expert Arika Okrent, author of "In the Land of Invented Languages," even "made-up" languages like Klingon and Esperanto serve an important purpose. She joins the Curiosity Podcast to discuss the field of linguistics and why we say what we say.
In addition to her first-level certification in Klingon, Arika Okrent's education includes an M.A. in Linguistics from Gallaudet, the world's only university for the deaf, and a joint PhD from the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Psychology's Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Program at the University of Chicago.
Additional resources discussed:
- "In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language"
- Arika Okrent's website
- Lingua Francas, Pidgins, and Creoles
- Development and Use of the Klingon Language
- "J.R.R. Tolkien: A Descriptive Bibliography"
- "The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 6)"
- "The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Two (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 7)"
- "The War of the Ring: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Three (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 8)"
- The Klingon Language Institute's annual conference, qep'a'
- The Whorfian time warp: Representing duration through the language hourglass
- The Whites of Our Eyes (New York Times)
- Qapla'
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The famous five are away on a splendid weekend adventure. |
| 0:03.5 | Do we have to go home today? |
| 0:05.5 | sighed Anne. |
| 0:06.5 | I agree said Dick. |
| 0:08.0 | Even Timmy looks sad. |
| 0:09.5 | Cheer up everyone. |
| 0:11.5 | Beams Julian, I booked long weekend tickets we can return anytime on Monday |
| 0:17.0 | Oh you are clever Julian said Anne save over 50% with the long weekend a ticket from Great Western Railway. |
| 0:24.5 | Adventures start here. |
| 0:26.0 | Selected routes apply. |
| 0:27.6 | Saving in comparison to an anytime return fare. |
| 0:30.0 | I am curious, why is the study of linguistics so important? |
| 0:36.8 | I mean a language is an encapsulated history of so much it's a history of ideas of how you conceive of things, how you've |
| 0:45.8 | traveled around geography, and it's all in there. You can in the |
| 0:51.1 | structures and the words you can trace everything back and see where it came from and those things |
| 0:56.2 | are valuable and people should place value on that. Hi, I'm Cody Gough from the Award-winning Curiosity.com. |
| 1:07.0 | I'm Ashley Hamer, and this week we're curious about invented languages. |
| 1:14.4 | Every week we explore what we don't know because curiosity makes you smarter. |
| 1:18.2 | Welcome back to the Curiosity Podcast. |
| 1:20.8 | Today we talk to author and podcast. |
| 1:23.0 | Today we talk to author and linguistics expert Erica Okrant. |
| 1:27.0 | Where have I heard that name before? |
... |
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