My favorite fictional language

[xiphias]

Sure, some people love Klingon, for its "even more German than German" tone, or Elvish for its elegance, or some of the other languages J. R. R. Tolkien created by banging his original languages together and running the resultant creoles through thousands of years of linguistic modification. Many people love Láadan for its required use of evidentials, and its work in deconstruction linguistic constructions of gender. And there are plenty of other languages created for fiction that do cool things, and are just emotionally resonant with people -- either because the language itself is cool and has cool features, or because it's associated with a beloved work, or both.

My favorite? The rabbits' language in WATERSHIP DOWN. Sure, Richard Adams isn't much of a linguist -- he never put thought into syntax and grammar and how languages actually WORK, the way, say, Suzette Haden Elgin, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Marc Okrand did. Lapine is pretty much just some vocabulary smooshed together.

But the thing is, "hrair" and "tharn" are words that I actually USE. Like "grok", "hrair" and "tharn" express useful concepts that were not previously so concisely and simply expressible in English.

In case you're not familiar with them, "tharn" means "glazed and frozen in fear and stress -- trapped and locked down in the 'freeze' reaction of 'fight/flight/freeze'." And "hrair" is "a number more than what's easily and obviously countable -- approximately, 'a lot', or, maybe, 'five'."

The argument has been made that hrair >= 5 for rabbits, but for humans, it might be a different number, maybe hrair >= 9.

The point is, if you're facing hrair attackers, you've got NO chance to fight them off; if you've got hrair options, there are too many choices to really deal with (which could make you go tharn).

Indeed, it could be pointed out that Jay-Z didn't actually have 99 problems: if you count them up in the song, he actually had hrair problems.

Also, of course, the reason why everybody loves lapine -- one of the best quotes in all of literature: "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!"

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

And "hrair" is "a number more than what's easily and obviously countable -- approximately, 'a lot', or, maybe, 'five'."

Do you know how cats count? "Nose, ears, nose-and-ears, paws - whiskers!" - which is a Very Big Number, and should probably be run away from.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

(Also, I still use tharn.)

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I was also impressed that when "silflay hraka" showed up late in the book, it had the force of an actual obscenity.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

Yes, precisely.

[seventorches.livejournal.com]

Yes, and also by that time you're accustomed enough to the language that you actually understand the sentence, even though up til that point you're only seen the words in isolation. Very cool effect.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And that you actually UNDERSTAND the sentence.

[metaphortunate.livejournal.com]

It did. And I first encountered that book in the third grade, when our teacher read it aloud to us during Quiet Time. We were stunned.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Is "El-Ahraira" derived from... oh, of course, "The Prince with a Thousand Enemies". I've never read the book... (add to list)... and I know this name from Ben Newman's excellent song. (Lyrics and chords, MP3))

Checking... Got it! “In Lapine, his name is a contraction of the phrase Elil-Hrair-Rah, meaning "prince with a thousand enemies".”

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I love the mythology. Partly, I love the style of the myth animations from the movie, but I like the actual mythology too.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

On occasion, I've blanked on the name of El-ahrairah -- and remembered it by back-translating "prince with a thousand enemies." Yeah, I forget the name of the character, but can remember "elil," "hrair", and "rah".

[wolfdancer.livejournal.com]

Must re read, re watch. this was one of the best books ever.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Have you read TALES FROM WATERSHIP DOWN? It is in absolutely no way anywhere near as good as the original book, but it's fun. It's basically Richard Adams writing some Watership Down short story fanfics.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

The first time I read Watership Down all the way through, I cheered out loud when I got to "silflay hraka, u embleer rah." It's my favorite book, easily.

[metaphortunate.livejournal.com]

Tharn is an extremely good word if you deal with the depression/anxiety combo platter.

[navrins]

Thanks! Just read it for the first time, largely because of this post. Quite good, aside from the giant ball of sexism I wouldn't have noticed ten years ago.

Of course, ten years ago - well, fifteen, anyway - I couldn't have looked up place names on google maps to find out where they are. (Quite near Basingstoke, as it happens.)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The sexism is not necessarily all Adams' fault -- he based his characters' personalities, and the "typical warren" social setup on actual rabbit behavioral research as it was understood at the time. He got his information from R.M. Lockley's 1964 popular science book The Private Life of the Rabbit. In the half-century since Lockley's book came out, a lot of what we know has changed, and we've discovered that rabbit society isn't as male-dominated as Lockley thought, and Adams wrote.

Of course, both Lockey and Adams presumably interpreted what they saw and read through a lens of patriarchy, but, y'know, that's just One Of Those Things.

In any case, one of the reasons the book actually works so well is that Adams DID do some basic research into rabbits before writing, even if what he found out has since been superseded.

[navrins]

I thought of that. And if he had, somewhere, included a few sentences to the effect of, "Among rabbits, it is the bucks who make the decisions, go out and do exciting things, and provide a safe place where the does can care for the young," I would have mostly forgiven it. He does provide similar explanations about other aspects of rabbit culture that are different from that of humans (like tharn and hrair, and communalism, and even the lack of exclusive romantic partnerships among mating couples), and by not doing similarly for the sexism, he implies that's something he doesn't see as being different from humans.

I mean, I pretty much forgive it anyway. It's a fun read, and I can have the fun without being too bothered by the sexism. But I notice it's there. (And I wonder if I'd find it as easy to enjoy despite the sexism if I weren't male.)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Obviously, you'd have to ask women that last one. But I'd point out that eight women have commented in this very post that they like, or even love, the book.

I think the fact that the book's from 1972 makes a difference. We've had forty years to think about feminist ideals since then, and I hope that we've made some progress. I hope that more people nowadays would NOT make that unthinking assumption about Proper Gender Roles -- certainly, I'd expect that, at least among my friends, folks would have at least a shot at not falling into that trap.

Additionally, women, unfortunately, HAVE to develop something of a thick skin against that kind of pervasive unthinking sexism in fiction.