A Glimpse of Glaugnea

Away from the hustle and bustle of the international auxiliary language milieu, there is another dimension of constructed languages - the "personal languages," the realm of langue close, of language forms invented solely for the pleasure of the inventor. These language designs rarely come to light, and not much has been written about them. One that I find particularly interesting is Glaugnea, created by Michael Helsem.

Glaugnea (from glaug, which means "started without intention of finishing") is, in its own terms, a bwinmol (an artificial language with syntax) and more. "Glaugnea is a poet's dream of language," Michael writes in taboo jadoo #4. "If language is a game, it is also an eenluce (a game whose rules keep changing). With Glaugnea, i go further; i want to make it a ctelzing (a game with an unlimited number of kinds of moves). Let every occasion invent precedents or disregard them."

Michael believes that standardized dictionaries and mass media hegemony tend to create an atmosphere in which linguistic innovation is discouraged; but there's plenty of reason to encourage individuals to engage in word creation and language invention. "Aside from airwoh (the allure of the extremely rare), and blixth (something done for the beauty of the act, not for any inherent meaningfulness or utility) for the woign [woin] (= sole speaker of a language), there is one substantial reason for glossopoeia to be cultivated: not everything has yet been NAMED." Only the roughest outlines of our experiences are communicated by existing languages, so there is room for countless "interstitial languages" whose semantic structures need not coincide with those of any existing language.

Glaugnea words are created by various methods. Michael likes to use the "original" word for a concept when possible: the Egyptian word for 'pyramid' or Arabic for 'coffee' - written in the alphabet of origin. Words might be borrowed from any language Michael has access to, or created from anagrams, other people's neologisms, oalnathp (adding extra letters to an existing word), or several other techniques.

The grammar of Glaugnea is also innovative. Nouns have inflectional endings to indicate three numbers: singular, dual and plural; and four cases: nominative, genitive (for alienable possession only), major object and minor object. Verb, Object, Subject is the canonical word order. As for the personal pronouns, they indicate the gender for all persons: mo = 'I' (masculine), ma = 'I' (feminine). Glaugnea has a set of particles that reflect its 4-value logic (true; false; true and false; neither true nor false) and 3-value observationals (apparently and really; apparently but not; despite appearances). The numerals are base-13 by default, although it is also possible to use the more ordinary base-10 system. Verbs can be inflected to indicate tense and duration, mood, negation, frequency, and emphasis.

"Glaugnea can be written left to right or right to left, & horizontally or vertically. The default is left to right, horizontally; in other arrangements the text should begin with a symbol like this: -> pointing in the direction the text runs." (But what about boustrophedon?)

conversationals
frac = "If you don't know, you don't need to know."
imnaev = "Because no one cares enough to do something about it."
ruye = "Sorry if I've said it before, but..."

nouns
ebgro = assuming everyone in the world lives just like you do
geyorb = a hitherto unarticulated nuance, distinction, or connection
lithonia = the beauty of something broken and now useless
meebzink = the squeak of clean damp hair
skapsy = a well-known but beloved fraud (e.g. Santa Claus, elections)
vroogly = the smell of a barbershop
welsha = the love of language

verbs
delk = to think of a witticism without using it
folps = to revert to one's original accent in a stressful situation
hurbkun = to become used to confusion
shmang = to be hit by the rebound
snefk = to recognize a face and forget the name
tongganox = to watch it rain from someplace dry

adjectives
chabd = very effective for some, but not at all for others
eemouroy = not working if you don't believe in it (but not necessarily working if you do)
gathzorn = weary of living but unwilling to die
juckow = tired, but happy
mouroift = unable to believe (in something), though wishing to; reluctantly agnostic
selhay = ignored because it doesn't fit one's assumptions or preconceptions
ubsh = still tender, but healed

from the 16th edition of Journal of Planned Languages
copyright 1992 by Rick Harrison