Láadan: Difference between revisions

|creator=Suzette Haden Elgin

|setting=experiment in feminist [[linguistics]], and featured in Elgin's novel ''Native Tongue''

|familycolor=conlang

|fam1=[[artistic language|artistic]] and [[philosophical language|philosophical]] language

|fam2=[[fictional language]]

'''Láadan''' is a feminist<ref name="foer-2012">Joshua Foer, [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/12/24/121224fa_fact_foer "John Quijada and Ithkuil, the Language He Invented"], ''[[The New Yorker]]'', Dec. 24, 2012.</ref> constructed language created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the [[w:Linguistic relativity|Sapir–Whorf hypothesis]], 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 language]]s may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women. The language was included in her science fiction [[w:Native Tongue (Suzette Haden Elgin novel)|''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 is a [[tonal language]]. It utilises two distinct tones:

* ''lo'' – {{IPA|/lō/}} or {{IPA|/lò/}}, a short, medium or low tone, represented by a single unmarked vowel

* ''ló'' – {{IPA|/ló/}}, a short, high tone, represented by a single marked vowel

* ''loó'' – {{IPA|/lǒː/}}, a long, low-rising tone, represented by a double vowel, the second of which is marked

* ''lóo'' – {{IPA|/lôː/}}, a long, high-falling tone, represented by a double vowel, the first of which is marked

Láadan has five vowels:

* ''a'' – {{IPA|/ɑ/}}, an [[w:open back unrounded vowel|open back unrounded vowel]] (as English ''calm''),

* ''e'' – {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, an [[w:open-mid front unrounded vowel|open-mid front unrounded vowel]] (as English ''bell''),

* ''i'' – {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, a [[w:near-close near-front unrounded vowel|near-close near-front unrounded vowel]] (as English ''bit''),

* ''o'' – {{IPA|/o/}}, a [[w:close-mid back rounded vowel|close-mid back rounded vowel]] (as English ''home''),

* ''u'' – {{IPA|/u/}}, a [[w:close back rounded vowel|close back rounded vowel]] (as English ''boon'').

! rowspan="2"| [[w:Labial consonant|Labial]]

! colspan="2"| [[w:Dental consonant|Dental]] /<br> [[w:Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]

! rowspan="2"| [[w:Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]<br>/ [[w:Palatal consonant|Palatal]]

! rowspan="2"| [[w:Glottal consonant|Glottal]]

! [[w:Central consonant|Central]]

! [[w:Lateral consonant|Lateral]]

! colspan="2" | [[w:Nasal consonant|Nasal]]

! colspan=2|[[w:Plosive consonant|Plosive]]

! rowspan="2" | [[w:Fricative consonant|Fricative]]

! colspan="2" | [[w:Approximant consonant|Approximant]]

Láadan lacks the consonants {{IPA|/p, t, k, ɡ, s, z, f, v/}}. However, it uses ''b'', ''d'', ''sh'' ({{IPA|/ʃ/}}), ''m'', ''n'', ''l'', ''r'', ''w'', ''y'' ({{IPA|/j/}}), ''h'' with the same phonetic value as English. In addition to these, three digraphs require further explanation:

* ''th'' − {{IPA|/θ/}}, a [[w:voiceless dental fricative|voiceless dental fricative]] (always as in English ''think'', never as ''then''),

* ''zh'' − {{IPA|/ʒ/}}, a [[w:voiced postalveolar fricative|voiced postalveolar fricative]] (as English ''plea'''s'''ure''),

* ''lh'' − {{IPA|/ɬ/}}, a [[w:voiceless alveolar lateral fricative|voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]] (as Welsh ''llan'').

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:

* 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 [[evidentiality|evidence]] particle − this occurs at the end of statements and indicates the trustworthiness of the statement. They are:

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".

*[[:Category:Engineered languages|Other Engineered languages]]

*Elgin, Suzette Haden, & Diane Martin. ''A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan''. Madison: Society for the Furtherance and Study of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1988.

{{pri}}