Es þak glaðaspraða?

On the structure of Icelandic Insectese, constructed languages and nonsense languages

Abstract

Behind an invented language is an enormous amount of knowledge the speaker has of the language itself and which features a human language can – and cannot have to work as a real language. This knowledge is revealed when the invented language is translated so that a new group of speakers may easily understand it, which is the main topic of this article. The article analyses the structure of Icelandic Insectese as it appears in the children’s book Kva es þak?, translated by Sverrir Norland, and compares it to the original Insectese that Carson Ellis created for her book Du iz tak? The article describes the difference between invented languages and nonsense languages and the challenges that translators face when they try to adjust invented languages for a new group of readers that speak a different language. The article attempts to answer the question: What do speakers need to know about their own language to learn an invented language?