I enjoy languages, and wish that I knew more of them. One of my few disappointments with our time here in the Philippines is the inability to learn more Tagalog. I grew up learning Spanish (favorite phrase: “El carne de burro no es transperiente”), took Spanish in high school and then took it again in college while I took French. I did pick up some Cebuano while living in Mindanao, and that has helped me pick up some Tagalog.

But I never thought about creating my own language. This interests me because whenever I think about the bits and pieces of the languages that I do know I am struck by how interesting each is. Spanish seems very clean and systematic, while Tagalog is messy and complicated. Cebuano, although a more rural language, seems simpler and closer to Spanish than to Tagalog. Tagalog seems to me to be a mess of prefixes, infixes and suffixes that may rearrange the letters of the original word. Can someone single-handedly create a believable language? I find it fascinating. Can a made-up language be useful outside of literature (presumably sci-fi/fantasy)?