posted
Who invented it? Is there an actual structure to the language (like Tolkein developed for his Elvish tongue)? I think the Legion Lost story was the first time I actually saw Legionnaires "speaking" in Interlac, when they confronted Shikari.
We've also seen a few instances of "Durlan" - was the first was in the now-classic Dr. Mayavale story? Durlan characters were also used in the 5YL story which explained R.J. Brande's origin, and we had a smattering of Durlan in the post-boot.
Have other languages been developed in the Legion stories?
posted
Pointless erudition alert (how do I remember all this? {g}), mostly from a love of typography ...
They've often made the storytelling point, in Legion descriptive fiction (such as the "Who's Who" series), that Interlac is a "language." All it's ever actually been, though, is an alphabet, created by Keith Giffen, and first fully appearing in a table in "LSH" v2 n311. He did it to make display type on spacecraft, placards, readouts, and the like look consistent.
All dialogue was in English, or whatever language was used for foreign editions, in the preboot. Displays were transliterated ("translated" applies to languages) from English into Interlac letters. It's only been in the postboot that dialogue has occasionally appeared in Interlac letters.
Giffen is no Tolkien, to say the least, and certainly isn't a linguist or an orthographer (the shapes of letters and how they match sounds). He simply invented what he saw as a plausible futuristic letter shape to correspond with each of the 26 in English. And numerals, on what I'd call a strange progression, for the 10 Arabic numerals. No more complex than Ralphie's Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring (rent "A Christmas Story" this Winter, if you haven't seen it yet).
Giffen put a lot of weirdness into Interlac. It's not just my opinion, either! This was concocted before the rise of PCs and font-creation utilities, so it had to be laboriously hand-lettered. Not every artist liked it. One computer readout appearing next to Dream Girl in "LSH" v3 n17, inked by Mahlstedt, transliterates as: "Keith -- I hate Interlac! Larry".
A stab at handwritten Interlac appears in "LSH" v3 Annual 1 ("Who Shot Laurel Kent?"), but it really isn't meant for handwriting -- as, I believe, Paul Levitz once said in a lettercolumn.
[ August 26, 2003, 05:35 AM: Message edited by: Greybird ]
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Is Kandru Boltax a message board person (name sounds "Legionish"), a character or a real person?
And thank you Grey, for the info. I didn't know what orthography was - that would be interesting reading. Buy why say erudition is pointless? I ain't one-tenth as erudite as I'd like to be.
Too bad Interlac wasn't developed as a real language right from the start. Maybe it could be reverse-engineered, somehow. I expect Klingon was more foresightfully prepared, since people actually give courses in it.
Apart from hieroglyphics, Interlac must then be the only language which had a written form first, or only. Russian didn't get written until fairly well along, so I was told. The same would go for native languages (in Canada, maybe not other aboriginal peoples). Don't know about other contemporary languages.
posted
Why pointless? Because, as Scott says, you can't understand half of what I say. {rueful smile} The other half is to deliberately get everyone upset, as I've often been told ... *sigh*
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
FC, Kandru Boltax is a character. He was President of Earth who was kidnapped and impersonated by Universo. He's from ADVENTURE COMICS #359. He was replaced by Colossal Boy's mom, Marte Allon.
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lightning Lad: You know who you should ask, Legion-wise, about languages? Kandru Boltax. Anyone remember him?
Oh!! Oh!! Pick me!! Pick me!! (hand flailing about in the air). I know Mr. Lad, I know!!
And aren't you the clever one? I knew who he was, but didn't get why you asked until I researched his background. How the hell did you know that off the top of your head? There's a Legion Trivia question right there!
-------------------- Craig C.
- Time travel stories are told in chronillogical order.
From: Santa Ana, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Greybird: Why pointless? Because, as Scott says, you can't understand half of what I say. {rueful smile} The other half is to deliberately get everyone upset, as I've often been told ... *sigh*
It was meant in jest Grey. Maybe a bad one but jest none the less. Plus anytime you post I can be assured there is something I'll learn, Legion related or other. Your post had one of each. I had no idea there was a different word other than translation when it come to non-language translations. Plus I had never heard about the little in joke Mahlstedt put in. Little things like that make me want to dig through my back issues to see what else I missed back then.
So, no hard feelings? Friends?
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lightning Lad: You know who you should ask, Legion-wise, about languages? Kandru Boltax. Anyone remember him?
Oh!! Oh!! Pick me!! Pick me!! (hand flailing about in the air). I know Mr. Lad, I know!!
And aren't you the clever one? I knew who he was, but didn't get why you asked until I researched his background. How the hell did you know that off the top of your head? There's a Legion Trivia question right there!
It was a connection I always made to the topic at hand. Helped me remember the character. Maybe I should bring it up next time I get a chance to in the trivia thread. But someone may guess it here (besides yourself) before then.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Of course, Interlac was never designed to be an actual languange, but rathter a sort of DC No-Prize answer to the oft-asked lettercol question, "Why do all these alien species speak English?"
One could look at it as, "Oh, um... actually they are all speaking Interlac, the language of the 30th century, and we, your kindly editors, are translating it for you."
However, as telepathic earplugs were introduced around the same time, I always took it, as a kid, that the characters were all speaking their native languages and the plugs translated it into what the listener, and also the reader, could understand. This percieved, though technically non-existatant language was called Interlac, or Inter Language Communication.
Of course, some words, or concepts, do not translate. Think the Eskimo's 126 words for snow vs. our 1. Hence Shikari's strange lingusitic aberations.
From: Sumner, ME | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wasn't Boltax a linguist and translator prior to his election as President?
-------------------- "Hey Jim! Get Mon out of the Zone!! And...when do we get Condo back?"
From: Paragon City on patrol | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I thought the "Eskimos have XXX words for snow" was a myth. Isn't Eskimo a polysynthetic language (ie. word are run together to make a new word - ie the word for white snow would be whitesnow), with as many variations on each word as there are appropriate adjectives?
posted
No hard feelings, amigos mios. Thanks for your kind words. I often react too much to such things, I know. I should also see the likelihood of others being Too Little Caffeine Man (Woman), as I've been. ... I'm not gonna forgive those rue-hating cats, though {g}
I know I've had a great deal stretched in terms of my own awareness, from DCMB Classic days to right here at LW and elsewhere. In just the last day, I posted my current Windows desktop (see the Off-Topic forum thread), which shows some lovely comics art I wouldn't have found without Shady telling me about "Sojourn" ... and, say, where IS Shady anyway?
Edit: I just realized that an Interlac alphabet ought to be made available somewhere on the first page of this thread. The Great Spirit knoweth I've looked for my own copy often enough!
[ August 27, 2003, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: Greybird ]
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Love]](graemlins/love.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Aaahhh!]](graemlins/scream.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Lightning Lad]](graemlins/LightningLad.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
