April 28, 2010

Some ‘Painlore’ and ‘Nipperlings’ to go with your mystical Runes?

Given the apparent interest in Runes and Runic writing systems, I’m surprised that enthusiasts haven’t yet connected with the 19th Century attempt to purge English of all that isn’t Anglo-Saxon in origin. Clergyman and linguistic dabbler William Barnes created new words to replace those of Latin, Greek or other “foreign” origin. The results were amusing, to say the least, and could presumably be written in Runes — after all, why continue to use the Roman alphabet if you’ve just “purified” English in this way?

Admittedly, this effort doesn’t look too respectable now given the similar (if much later) Nazi attempt to “purify” German. For example, Party members with a pagan, Nordic bent tried to get people used to the idea of re-naming the months based on early Germanic roots: February became Hornung (month of the shedding of antlers), while August was dubbed Ernting (harvest month). Just like most such efforts, it seemed strained and artificial (not to mention the nasty ideological underpinnings), and didn’t “take.”

However, the creations of Barnes are not without their merits. Recognize any of these?

WHEELSADDLE = bicycle

CELLAR-THANE = butler

PAINLORE = pathology

NIPPERLINGS = forceps

GAINRISING = resurrection

And so on — a counterfactual language, suggesting that the Normans lost at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and just went home.

Anyway, I like my languages to be organically grown, and their richness includes foreign loanwords. Esperanto, Orwell’s Newspeak and Klingon are, in my view, best left to the library shelf. However, if you are dying to speak a synthetic language written in Runic characters, your best bet is probably to learn Elvish or one of Tolkien’s other wonderful creations…