BOOKS: In the Land of Invented Languages, Arika Okrent (2009)

You've probably heard of Esperanto, the language invented by Ludwik Zamenhof at the end of the 19th century. The goal was to provide a common language for all of humanity, thereby ending international strife, war, and suffering.

Didn't quite work out that way, of course. But that's nothing new; for nearly as long as there have been languages, there have been attempts to create the perfect language, and none of them have ever achieved their lofty goals. (The earliest documented invented language was created by Hildegard von Bingen, 12th-century nun and composer.)

There have been isolated pockets of success. The pictorial language Blissymbolics turned out to be of extraordinary use in the education of disabled children, and the story of a Canadian school's battle with the language's increasingly megalomanical creator is one of Okrent's most fascinating tales. And though it may have to failed to unite the world, Esperanto has enough speakers to sustain a handful of newsletters and annual conventions.

Esperanto is certainly the most successful invented language, but nipping at its heels is Klingon, created by Marc Okrand for the Star Trek movies of the 1980s. Trek fans often tend to be on the obsessive side, and the thought of being given an entire new language to learn was a thrill for some of them. There are now Klingon translations of the Bible, Hamlet, and other classic literary works.

The language inventors whose stories Okrent tells are, for the most part, lovable crackpots, but their intentions are good, and it's kind of nice to let yourself get caught up in their crazy dreams of improving the world through improving the language.