Hack #51. Learn an Artificial Language
Since the language you speak influences your thoughts, speak some unusual languages and open your mind to unusual thoughts.
A conlang is a constructed language, more commonly known as an artificial language. Unlike C and Java, which are artificial languages created by humans for computers to use, conlangs are created by humans for humans to use.
Over the centuries, hundreds of conlangs have been created, and certainly many more projects that are private have never been published. Many conlangs were created with a specific purpose in mind, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish languages Sindarin and Quenya, which were created for their sheer beauty. Others were created for a laugh or to be used in movies or books.
Some languages are working languages, however, designed to liberate and empower human minds in a specific way. Esperanto, for example, was designed to break down cultural barriers between people of different cultures, and Lojban was designed to remove as many limitations on human thought as possible.
In Action
Here are six well-known constructed languages that can help you think and express yourself in novel ways.
Esperanto
Esperanto is the most widely spoken conlang on Earth, with an estimated 2 million speakers, putting it on par with Lithuanian, Icelandic, and Hebrew.1 It was designed in 1887 by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof as a kind of neutral, universal second language that would allow native speakers of all languages to meet one another on even ground, ...
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