paraicNov 26, 2022

@bookstodon @linguistics A question prompted by a post I saw: what are the best #ScienceFiction #scifi books where #languages play an important part?

There’s 1984, obviously. Even more obviously, The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance. The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie has some interesting language features in terms of gender identity, power and mutual intelligibility.

I’m sure there are loads more - this is ‘off the top of my head’ - what others would you recommend?

Show threadManuel F. Herrador
@paraic @bookstodon @linguistics There's the Expanse series, where a lot of play (even political) goes around the Belter cant. Since it's composed from real contemporaneous languages, etymology is fun to follow.
Nov 26, 2022 at 11:36amWeb
Show threadManuel F. HerradorNov 26, 2022
@paraic @bookstodon @linguistics The Jaran series by Kate Elliott, how could I forget. Lots of language play there, even hand signs, and even different interpretations of reality by different species as a function of their language.
Show threadparaicNov 26, 2022
@bookstodon @manuelfherrador @linguistics excellent - that sounds great!
Show threadManuel F. HerradorNov 26, 2022
@paraic @bookstodon @linguistics The main character, Tess, is a linguistics graduate XDD
Show threadparaicNov 26, 2022
@linguistics @manuelfherrador @bookstodon thanks - who’s the author?
Show threadManuel F. HerradorNov 26, 2022
@paraic @linguistics @bookstodon James S. A Corey (actually, a pseudonym for two co-authors)