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  • Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Sam.

  • And I'm Neil. How are you today, Sam?

  • Thanks for asking Neil. I'm fine - not!

  • Err, sorry, so are you fine or not?

  • Oh, did I confuse you? My bad.

  • Sam is speaking English,

  • just a very modern type of English.

  • For example, saying 'my bad'

  • instead of 'my fault' is a way of accepting that she's wrong.

  • Or adding 'not' at the end of a sentence

  • to show I really mean the opposite of what

  • I said. Both are examples of small changes in English,

  • which have happened naturally over the last decade or two.

  • Changes like these happen because unlike, say, Latin,

  • which no one speaks day-to-day,

  • English is a living language - a language

  • people speak and use in their ordinary lives.

  • New bits of English are invented as people use their language in new ways.

  • But what happens when the language comes

  • from an entirely different galaxy - somewhere like Kronos, home planet of

  • the Klingons.

  • Yes, when sci-fi TV show Star Trek introduced alien characters called Klingons,

  • the makers needed to invent a whole new language-

  • Klingon - entirely made up, and unrelated to any human language,

  • Klingon has developed a life of its own today.

  • Today, you can even study it at university.

  • So, Neil, my quiz question is this: In 2010, Klingon became

  • the first invented language to do what? Is it a) have its own dictionary.

  • b) have an opera written, or c) be recognised as an official language.

  • by the United Nations? Every language needs vocabulary

  • so I'll say a) Klingon was the first invented language to have its own dictionary.

  • OK, Neil, I'll reveal the answer later

  • in the programme. Klingon isn't the only made up language

  • invented for the movies.

  • David Peterson is the creator of Dothraki, a language used in the fantasy

  • TV show, Game of Thrones.

  • From his home in Los Angeles,

  • David spoke to Michael Rosen, presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme,

  • Word of Mouth.

  • They discussed Saint Hildegard, who created

  • the very first made up language in the 12th century.

  • What she had was an entire list

  • of nouns, a whole list of nouns - many of them Godly,

  • many of them not - and she would drop them into songs using Latin grammar,

  • and other Latin words and so that it's not a language.

  • proper, it's the way that we understand it now,

  • because really, when we talk about a language, it's not just the vocabulary,

  • it's the grammar. Nevertheless, we still kind of look on her

  • as the patron saint of modern conlanging.

  • Saint Hildegard invented new nouns, but used Latin grammar.

  • So, David doesn't think her invention is a proper language.

  • Nevertheless, Saint Hildegard is considered

  • the patron saint of made up languages.

  • The patron saint of something refers to a Christian saint

  • to a particular activity.

  • Here, the activity is inventing a conlang -

  • short for 'constructed language' - artificially invented languages

  • like Klingon and Dothraki.

  • Another famous constructed language,

  • Esperanto, was invented in 1887

  • by Polish doctor, Ludwik Zamenhof.

  • He wanted to make it easier for people who spoke different languages

  • to communicate with each other. Listen as David Peterson speaks Esperanto

  • with Michael Rosen and tests

  • how much he understands, for BBC Radio 4 programme,

  • Word of Mouth.

  • You're an English speaker from Western Europe and in the 19th Century

  • 'universal' meant 'able to be understood by people from Western Europe' and so

  • for example, to say 'I speak Esperanto' -

  • mi parolas Esperanton’.

  • Yes, I might have got that one.

  • Theparlebit from its Latin root and 'me', obviously.

  • Try me again.

  • Kiel vi fartas? Who is my father?

  • No. Where am I travelling? No,

  • I got stuck on that one.

  • Like Spanish, Italian and other modern European languages,

  • Esperanto is based on Latin.

  • Michael guessed the meaning of the Esperanto wordparolasfrom its Latin root -

  • the origin or source of a language.

  • But the second sentence of Esperanto, isn't so easy.

  • Michael gets stuck on that one.

  • He can't answer because it's too difficult,

  • I think I'd probably get stuck on that as well.

  • But at least Esperanto was invented for humans, not

  • alien creatures from outer space.

  • And speaking of creatures from outer space,

  • did I get the right answer to your quiz question, Sam?

  • Ah, so I asked Neil, about an unusual first, achieved by the made up

  • alien language, Klingon.

  • I guessed it was first invented language to have its own dictionary.

  • Which was...

  • the wrong answer.

  • I'm afraid, Neil.

  • Incredibly, the correct answer was b) - in 2010 a company

  • of Dutch musicians and singers performed the first ever Klingon opera.

  • The story must have been hard to follow, but I'm sure the singing was

  • out of this world!

  • MajQa! - that's Klingon for great, apparently.

  • OK, let's recap the vocabulary

  • from our discussion about invented languages,

  • also called constructed languages, or conlangs for short.

  • A living language like English is a language that people still speak

  • and use in their ordinary lives.

  • The phrase 'my bad' originated in the United States,

  • but is also used in Britain as an informal way to say 'my fault'

  • or to tell someone that you have made a mistake.

  • 'Patron saint' is someone believed

  • to give special help and protection to a particular activity.

  • The root of a language means it's original source.

  • And finally, if you get stuck on something

  • you're unable to complete it because it's too difficult.

  • That's all the time we have for this programme about invented languages.

  • Gis revido baldau’ -

  • that's Esperanto for

  • 'see you again soon'.

  • In other words 'Qapla’ - which is how Klingons saygoodbye’. Qapla!

  • Qapla!

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

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6 Minute English: Inventing languages

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 10 月 21 日
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