Brain drift
Like thread drift, but internal. If you’re wondering what sort of weirdness goes on between my ears, the following is actually fairly typical.
I caught this comment on Daily Pundit:
Strange how a language made up for TV and movies has more speakers than Esperanto. And in less time.
The language in question is tlhIngan Hol, otherwise known as Klingon, and not having access to the census records of the Klingon Empire, I suspect there may be more actual speakers of Esperanto, at least on this plain granite planet, though few, as the phrase goes, speak it like a native. (Among those few: Jim DiGriz and George Soros. Determining which of the two might be more slippery is left as an exercise for the student.)
There is, however, a distant Star Trek connection to Esperanto: Leslie Stevens’ 1965 horror film Incubus, entirely written in Esperanto, starring a pre-Starfleet William Shatner.
Tangents? What tangents?
fillyjonk »
11 December 2009 · 5:43 pm
I have to be terribly careful about brain drift. Especially if it starts to happen when I am up in front of a class. Because then my students mind wind up learning about how lichens were used to dye wool, or urine as a dyeing mordant, or how pregnant horse urine was at one time used as a source of hormones for the BCP, or how vets determine that a large farm animal is actually pregnant.
I can also get on the internet to look up “just this one thing” and log off two hours later.
Not sure whether to consider those brain properties a bug or a feature.
canadienne »
11 December 2009 · 11:22 pm
How do you KNOW stuff like the fact that William Shatner starred in an Esperanto film? My brain drifts, while constant, never seem to be that interesting. Your brain must be a fascinating place to inhabit.
CGHill »
11 December 2009 · 11:39 pm
Actually, I did not know that before starting this little fugue. Credit it to pure serendipity.
And anyway, one of the hallmarks of this place is the occasional connection of dots no one else would ever see: I suspect no one else would bother to work in a reference to the War of Jenkins’ Ear while writing about Janet’s — “Miss Jackson’s,” if you’re nasty — Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction.
(Yes, really.)
Miĉjo »
12 December 2009 · 1:54 am
I suspect there may be more actual speakers of Esperanto, at least on this plain granite planet
You suspect right. Estimates vary, but a professor of sociolinguistics conducted in-field research to arrive at a figure of about 2,000,000 FSI-level-3 speakers, level 3 being “general professional proficiency, able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations”. The world’s fluent Klingon speakers are said to be able to go out to dinner together comfortably.
As an aside, not all Esperanto speakers are admirers of George Soros. Besides, he essentially parted company with the language when he moved to the U.S.
though few, as the phrase goes, speak it like a native
True, but then, that’s the idea :-).
Esperanto just might be a (temporary) remedy for braindrift. It’s both logical and simple, so you can pick it up quickly and enjoyably, and you can actually use it with the 2,000,000 or so speakers, which are now easy to find on the Internet. But on second thought, maybe not: it’s particularly rich in modes of expression, and one challenge Esperanto speakers often take up is to see how many different, grammatically correct ways they can say the same thing.
unimpressed »
12 December 2009 · 2:57 am
@fillyjonk: A gift or a curse? (If you’re a Monkophile.)
fillyjonk »
12 December 2009 · 4:14 pm
unimpressed: I tend to consider it a gift, but I think my students consider it a curse. (I have, at least once, been compared to “Ducky” on NCIS. Though I notice they’ve toned down his tendency to ramble in recent seasons.)