• Question: Is conversial gruntism an actual language? I'm "learning" it.

    Asked by metemercan2011 to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 16 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      No, it’s not.

      But people have tried to invent their own languages, they’re referred to as “constructed” languages.

      The world’s most popular constructed language is Esperanto. The creator thought that many of the world’s problems were caused by language differences, and that by constructing one that was no one’s native language he could help solve this.
      In fact his language was mostly based on the languages he knew, so it wasn’t that international after all, and because no one speaks it, not many people know it.
      There’s a version of Wikipedia in Esperanto though, and it has an international language code.

      The second most popular constructed language in the world is Klingon from Star Trek. That may seem weird but the language expert who wrote the dialogue for Star Trek also wrote a dictionary for it. He intentionally used lots of strange language constructions to make it sound alien, so it’s not a very practical language to use. Most of the words are related to fighting in some way. You can buy Shakspeare’s Hamlet in Klingon too.

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      If you asked my mother, she would say yes. My brother and I still communicate in grunt and can understand each other completely without using words.

      I think it’s a teenage thing.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      I had never even heard of this until today… i think it definitely not a real language but i am interested to know where you are learning it from 🙂

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      I’m not really sure what the definitiion is of a complete and actual language (and I struggled to find out, exactly) but I guess it’s just a method of communication that is understood by one or more people then I guess between those people it could be classed as a language…whether it’s officially recognised or not is another matter…
      I remember a few years ago someone described something along the lines of “TweenSpeak” which was apparently the modern style of language used by young teenagers in America.
      I think people have always looked for different, almost secretive, ways of communicating and your way is no different!

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