This book includes material from 1st Dictionary and Grammar (1988) and
merges it with new vocabulary created for the Láadan website. Elgin died
in 2015, but interest persists in the language she created in 1982,
embodied in her SF "Native Tongue" series. Láadan is a feminist
constructed language created by Elgin to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
that the language one speaks influences the way one thinks, i.e., can a
language expressing the views of women shape a culture? Láadan includes
morphemes that require speakers to own their own perceptions-words that
indicate, for instance, whether a statement comes from personal
observation, a trusted source, or an unreliable third party. Nowadays
Elgin might argue that accusations of "fake news" would be impossible in
Láadan. This language also encodes speakers' intentions into their
sentences, eliminating another form of micro-aggression, the rude
comment that is passed off as "just a joke." All proceeds will go to the
Science Fiction Poetry Association.