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 threadMarekNov 26, 2022

@paraic @bookstodon @linguistics

There are a few Ted Chiang short stories ("Story of your life" > "Arrival" being the most obvious, but "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" also).

China Miéville's "Embassytown"

Similarly off the top of my head. Interesting question, will be pondering this one.

Show threadAnatol StefanowitschNov 26, 2022
@wildenstern @paraic Yes, “Embassytown” is spectacular, not least because it takes the possibility of fundamentally incompatible minds/languages seriously! Another novel that does this is C.J. Cherryh's “Forty Thousand in Gehenna”.
Show threadparaic
@stefanowitsch @wildenstern thanks - I’m not familiar with either!
Nov 26, 2022 at 11:44amWeb