Láadan

Láadan
Láadan
Created by	Suzette Haden Elgin
Date	1982
Setting and usage	experiment in feminist linguistics, and featured in Elgin's novel Native Tongue
Purpose	Constructed language artistic and philosophical language fictional language Láadan; ; ;
Sources	a priori language, with influences from Navajo and English
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ldn
Linguist List	ldn
Glottolog	laad1235
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Láadan (Láadan pronunciation: [ˈlɑ˦ɑˈdɑn]) is a gynocentric constructed language created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis,^[1] specifically to determine if development of a language aimed at expressing the views of women would shape a culture; a subsidiary hypothesis was that Western natural languages may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women. The language was included in her science fiction Native Tongue series. Láadan contains a number of words that are used to make unambiguous statements that include how one feels about what one is saying. According to Elgin, this is designed to counter male-centered language's limitations on women, who are forced to respond "I know I said that, but I meant this".

Phonology

Tones

Láadan is a tonal language. It utilises two distinct tones:

lo – /lō/ or /lò/, a short, medium or low tone, represented by a single unmarked vowel
ló – /ló/, a short, high tone, represented by a single marked vowel

The word "Láadan" has three syllables: "lá-" with the short vowel /a/ plus high tone; "-a" with the short vowel /a/ and no tone; and "-dan".

Láadan doesn't allow any double [i.e. long] phonemes. Whenever two identical short vowels would occur side by side in a single morpheme, one of them has to be marked for high tone. When adding an affix would result in two identical vowels side by side, an epenthetic /h/ is inserted to prevent the forbidden sequence. The language will allow either máa or maá, but not *maa. These combinations can be described as:

loó – /lǒː/, a long, low-rising tone, represented by a double vowel, the second of which is marked
lóo – /lôː/, a long, high-falling tone, represented by a double vowel, the first of which is marked

(Some people analyze these tone sequences as tonemic as well, for a total of four tones.)

Elgin preferred an analysis of the language as having no long vowels and a single tone, the high tone (distinguished from "neutral, baseline pitch"), but she acknowledged that linguists using other formalisms would be justified in saying that there are two tones, high and low (or unmarked or mid).^[2]

Vowels

Láadan has five vowels:

a – /ɑ/, an open back unrounded vowel (as English calm),
e – /ɛ/, an open-mid front unrounded vowel (as English bell),
i – /ɪ/, a near-close near-front unrounded vowel (as English bit),
o – /o/, a close-mid back rounded vowel (as English home),
u – /u/, a close back rounded vowel (as English boon).

Consonants

		Labial	Dental / Alveolar		Postalveolar / Palatal	Glottal
		Labial	central	lateral	Postalveolar / Palatal	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/
Plosive		b /b/	d /d/
Fricative	voiceless		th /θ/	lh /ɬ/	sh /ʃ/	h /h/
Fricative	voiced				zh /ʒ/
Approximant		w /w/	r /ɹ/	l /l/	y /j/

Láadan lacks the consonants /p, t, k, ɡ, s, z, f, v/. It uses b, d, sh (/ʃ/), m, n, l, r, w, y (/j/), h with the same phonetic value as English. Three digraphs require further explanation:

th – /θ/, a voiceless dental fricative (always as in English think, never as then),
zh – /ʒ/, a voiced postalveolar fricative (as English pleasure),
lh – /ɬ/, a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative (as Welsh llan).

Grammar

Most Láadan sentences contain three particles:

The speech-act particle – this occurs at the beginning of the sentence and marks it as either a statement (bíi), a question (báa), et cetera; in connected speech or writing, this particle is often omitted. They are:
Bíi

Indicates a declarative sentence (usually optional)

Báa

Indicates a question

Bó

Indicates a command; very rare, except to small children

Bóo

Indicates a request; this is the usual imperative/"command" form

Bé

Indicates a promise

Bée

Indicates a warning
The grammatical tense particle – this occurs second in the sentence and marks it as either present tense (ril), past tense (eril), future tense (aril) or hypothetical (wil); without the tense particle, the sentence is assumed to have the same tense as the previous sentence.
The evidence particle^[3] – this occurs at the end of statements and indicates the trustworthiness of the statement. They are:
wa

Known to speaker because perceived by speaker, externally or internally

wi

Known to speaker because self-evident

we

Perceived by speaker in a dream

wáa

Assumed true by speaker because speaker trusts source

waá

Assumed false by speaker because speaker distrusts source; if evil intent by the source is also assumed, the form is waálh

wo

Imagined or invented by speaker, hypothetical

wóo

Used to indicate that the speaker states a total lack of knowledge as to the validity of the matter

Láadan is a verb–subject–object (VSO) language. Verbs and adjectives are interchangeable. There are no articles, and the object is marked by the -th or -eth suffix. The plural number is shown only by the me- prefix to the verb. The particle ra following a verb makes it negative. Separate clauses are joined by the particle hé.

Some basic sentences in Láadan
bíi statement ril PRS áya be_beautiful mahina flower wa observed-truth bíi ril áya mahina wa statement PRS be_beautiful flower observed-truth The flower is beautiful
báa Q eril PAST mesháad PL-go/come with woman báa eril mesháad with Q PAST PL-go/come woman Did the women go/come?
bíi statement ril PRS lámála stroke/caress with woman ruleth cat-OBJ wa observed-truth bíi ril lámála with ruleth wa statement PRS stroke/caress woman cat-OBJ observed-truth The woman strokes the cat
bóo REQ wil HYP di speak/say le I neth you-OBJ bóo wil di le neth REQ HYP speak/say I you-OBJ I would like to speak with you, please.
bíi statement aril FUT meleyan PL-be_brown ra NEG lanemid dog wáa received-truth bíi aril meleyan ra lanemid wáa statement FUT PL-be_brown NEG dog received-truth I hear the dogs will not be brown
bíi statement ril PRS le I an know hé embedded-clause-marker eril PAST ne you bethudeha cave-at wa observed-truth bíi ril le an hé eril ne bethudeha wa statement PRS I know embedded-clause-marker PAST you cave-at observed-truth I know that you were at the cave

Morphology

Láadan has an agglutinative morphology, and uses a number of affixes to indicate various feelings and moods that many natural languages can only indicate by tone of voice, body language or circumlocution.

Affix	meaning	example
(-)lh(-)	disgust or dislike	hahodimi: "pleasantly bewildered"; hahodimilh: "unpleasantly bewildered"
du-	to try to	bíi eril dusháad le wa: "I tried to come"
dúu-	to try in vain to	bíi eril dúusháad le wa: "I tried in vain to come"
ná-	progressive aspect	bíi eril dúunásháad le wa: "I was trying in vain to come"
-(e)tha	natural possessor	lalal betha: "her mother's milk"
-(e)tho	customary or legal possessor	ebahid letho: "my husband"
-(e)thi	possessor by chance	losh nethi: "your money (gambling winnings)"
-(e)the	possessor by unknown provenance	ana worulethe: "the cats' food"
-(h)id	denotes male (otherwise female or gender neutral)	thul: "mother/parent"; thulid: "father"

The speech-act particle, at the beginning of a sentence, can also carry several suffixes, which expand on the overall state of the sentence. For example, bíi begins a statement, but bíide begins a statement that is part of a narrative; bóoth begins a request made in pain; báada begins a question that is meant in jest.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Láadan are built up from a number of constituent parts. The consonant l marks the first person, n the second person and b the third person. Usually, these are followed by the vowel e. The vowel a is used to designate someone who is loved (lhe- is prefixed to describe someone who is despised). The suffix -zh is used to mark a plural pronoun for numbers up to four, and -n for numbers beyond that. Therefore, lazh means "we, several beloved", and lheben means "they, many despised".

References

^ Foer, Joshua; Thuras, Dylan; Morton, Ella (20 September 2016). Atlas Obscura. Workman. p. 23. ISBN 9780761169086.
^ Elgin's blog
^ This is an Essay: The Language and Legacy of Láadan (Evidently)

External links

Official website
Elgin's Láadan introduction
Lesson One of Láadan Made Easier

A Láadan Sampler
Elgin’s critique of others’ analysis of Láadan:
- Myths About Láadan
- Just One More Láadan Myth
Láadan lessons (moderately paced lessons in Láadan by A.M.J. "Amberwind" Barnhart; archived from prior URL)
Some Láadan (PDF) (The text says that "wo-" is a plural marker. This is an error; the plural marker is "me-", while "wo-" is a relativizer.)
Láadan Working Group
How to count in Láadan
Conlang Critic on YouTube: a critical video review of the basics of Láadan as an artlang
Essays and guides about Láadan, a group blog

[1] Foer, Joshua; Thuras, Dylan; Morton, Ella (20 September 2016). Atlas Obscura. Workman. p. 23. ISBN 9780761169086.

[2] Elgin's blog

[3] This is an Essay: The Language and Legacy of Láadan (Evidently)

[1]

[2]

[3]