Láadan

Láadan is a feminist[1] constructed language created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis,[2] specifically to determine if development of a language aimed at expressing the views of women would shape a culture; a subsidiary hypothesis was that Western natural languages may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women. The language was included in her science fiction Native Tongue series. Láadan contains a number of words that are used to make unambiguous statements that include how one feels about what one is saying. According to Elgin, this is designed to counter male-centered language's limitations on women, who are forced to respond "I know I said that, but I meant this".

Láadan
Created bySuzette Haden Elgin
Date1982
Setting and usageexperiment in feminist linguistics, and featured in Elgin's novel Native Tongue
Purpose
Sourcesa priori language, with influences from Navajo and English
Language codes
ISO 639-3ldn
ldn
Glottologlaad1235

Phonology

Tones

Láadan is a tonal language. It utilises two distinct tones:

  • lo – /lō/ or /lò/, a short, medium or low tone, represented by a single unmarked vowel
  • ló – /ló/, a short, high tone, represented by a single marked vowel

The word "Láadan" has three syllables: "lá-" with the short vowel /a/ plus high tone; "-a" with the short vowel /a/ and no tone; and "-dan".

Láadan does not allow any double [i.e. long] phonemes. Whenever two identical short vowels would occur side by side in a single morpheme, one of them has to be marked for high tone. When adding an affix would result in two identical vowels side by side, an epenthetic /h/ is inserted to prevent the forbidden sequence. The language will allow either "máa" or "maá," but not "maa". These combinations can be described as:

  • loó – /lǒː/, a long, low-rising tone, represented by a double vowel, the second of which is marked
  • lóo – /lôː/, a long, high-falling tone, represented by a double vowel, the first of which is marked

(Some people analyze these tone sequences as tonemic as well, for a total of four tones.)

Elgin preferred an analysis of the language as having no long vowels and a single tone, the high tone (distinguished from "neutral, baseline pitch"), but she acknowledged that linguists using other formalisms would be justified in saying that there are two tones, high and low (or unmarked or mid).[3]

Vowels

Láadan has five vowels:

Consonants
  Labial Dental /
Alveolar		 Postalveolar
/ Palatal		 Glottal
Central Lateral
Nasal m /m/ n /n/
Plosive b /b/ d /d/
Fricative voiceless th /θ/ lh /ɬ/ sh /ʃ/ h /h/
voiced zh /ʒ/
Approximant w /w/ r /ɹ/ l /l/ y /j/

Láadan lacks the consonants /p, t, k, ɡ, s, z, f, v/. However, it uses b, d, sh (/ʃ/), m, n, l, r, w, y (/j/), h with the same phonetic value as English. In addition to these, three digraphs require further explanation:

Grammar

Most Láadan sentences contain three particles:

  • The speech-act particle – this occurs at the beginning of the sentence and marks it as either a statement (bíi), a question (báa), et cetera; in connected speech or writing, this particle is often omitted. They are:
    Bíi
    Indicates a declarative sentence (usually optional)
    Báa
    Indicates a question
    Bó
    Indicates a command; very rare, except to small children
    Bóo
    Indicates a request; this is the usual imperative/"command" form
    Bé
    Indicates a promise
    Bée
    Indicates a warning
  • The grammatical tense particle – this occurs second in the sentence and marks it as either present tense (ril), past tense (eril), future tense (aril) or hypothetical (wil); without the tense particle, the sentence is assumed to have the same tense as the previous sentence.
  • The evidence particle – this occurs at the end of statements and indicates the trustworthiness of the statement. They are:
    wa
    Known to speaker because perceived by speaker, externally or internally
    wi
    Known to speaker because self-evident
    we
    Perceived by speaker in a dream
    wáa
    Assumed true by speaker because speaker trusts source
    waá
    Assumed false by speaker because speaker distrusts source; if evil intent by the source is also assumed, the form is "waálh"
    wo
    Imagined or invented by speaker, hypothetical
    wóo
    Used to indicate that the speaker states a total lack of knowledge as to the validity of the matter

Láadan is a verb–subject–object (VSO) language. Verbs and adjectives are interchangeable. There are no articles, and the object is marked by the -th or -eth suffix. The plural number is shown only by the me- prefix to the verb. The particle ra following a verb makes it negative. Separate clauses are joined by the particle hé.

Some basic sentences in Láadan
Láadanliteral translationidiomatic translation
bíi ril áya mahina wastatement present-tense beautiful/beautify flower observed-truthThe flower is beautiful
báa eril mesháad withquestion past-tense plural-go/come womanDid the women go/come?
bíi ril lámála with ruleth wastatement present-tense stroke/caress woman cat-object observed-truthThe woman strokes the cat
bóo wil di le nethrequest hypothetical speak/say I you-objectI would like to speak with you, please.
bíi aril meleyan ra lanemid wáastatement future-tense plural-be-brown negative dog received-truthI hear the dogs will not be brown
bíi ril le an hé eril ne bethudeha wastatement present-tense I know embedded-clause-marker past-tense you cave-at observed-truthI know that you were at the cave

Morphology

Láadan has an agglutinative morphology, and uses a number of affixes to indicate various feelings and moods that many natural languages can only indicate by tone of voice, body language or circumlocution.

Affixmeaningexample
(-)lh(-)disgust or dislikehahodimi: "pleasantly bewildered"; hahodimilh: "unpleasantly bewildered"
du-to try tobíi eril dusháad le wa: "I tried to come"
dúu-to try in vain tobíi eril dúusháad le wa: "I tried in vain to come"
ná-progressive aspectbíi eril dúunásháad le wa: "I was trying in vain to come"
-(e)thanatural possessorlalal betha: "her mother's milk"
-(e)thocustomary or legal possessorebahid letho: "my husband"
-(e)thipossessor by chancelosh nethi: "your money (gambling winnings)"
-(e)thepossessor by unknown provenanceana worulethe: "the cats' food"
-(h)iddenotes male (otherwise female or gender neutral)thul: "mother/parent"; thulid: "father"

The speech-act particle, at the beginning of a sentence, can also carry several suffixes, which expand on the overall state of the sentence. For example, bíi begins a statement, but bíide begins a statement that is part of a narrative; bóoth begins a request made in pain; báada begins a question that is meant in jest.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Láadan are built up from a number of constituent parts. The consonant l marks the first person, n the second person and b the third person. Usually, these are followed by the vowel e. However, the vowel a is used to designate someone who is loved (lhe- is prefixed to describe someone who is despised). The suffix -zh is used to mark a plural pronoun for numbers up to four, and -n for numbers beyond that. Therefore, lazh means "we, several beloved", and lheben means "they, many despised".

See also

References
  1. Joshua Foer, "John Quijada and Ithkuil, the Language He Invented", The New Yorker, Dec. 24, 2012.
  2. Foer, Joshua; Thuras, Dylan; Morton, Ella (20 September 2016). Atlas Obscura. p. 23. ISBN 9780761169086.
  3. Elgin's blog

Further reading
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