Bonus 73: When books speculate on the future of English (Patreon)

Languages change over time. So when you write a book set a few hundred years in the future, some aspects of how people talk are going to be different, and authors can invent potential future versions of a language as a way of speculating about what might be different about future societies.

In this episode, your hosts Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about four science fiction books/series we're read recently that project interesting future versions of English. In the Terra Ignota series, set 500 years in the future, the characters use singular they for each other but the narrator uses "she" and "he" along with "thou" for deliberately archaic/subversive effect. In Woman on the Edge of Time, set in both the 1970s when it was written and 150 years later, the future timeline uses a gender-neutral "person" (short form "per") and has abolished gender roles in a way that's even starker in comparison to the 70s timeline. In the Expanse books, set around 2350 in space, humans living on the asteroid belt have created a contact language named Belter Creole with influence from English and many other languages, which was expanded on further for the tv show. In the Book of Koli and sequels, set centuries into a post-apocalyptic future, the narrator has many features that are rooted in present-day English but associated with less literacy (such as "could of" or "count and seal" for "council").

We also talk about reading books set in the future but written in the past, and how several of these books now exist in a future that's in some ways more similar to their imagined futures than the time when they were being written. Note that we're not spoilery for major plot events in any of these books, so you can feel free to listen without having read them! Though we can't guarantee you won't come away with a few additions to your reading list....

Read another book you liked that has linguistically interesting elements? Feel free to recommend it to us in the comments and we might get to it for a future books episode in upcoming years. Looking for more books to read or speculate about? Here are our previous books episodes:

• Bonus 54: Sentient plants, proto-internet, and more lingfic about quirky communication
• Bonus 40: Doing linguistics with kids
• Bonus 33: Reading fiction like a linguist

Read the transcript here.

Announcements:
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us on the Discord for our liveshow about gender and language with Dr Kirby Conrod. We had a fantastic time answering your questions and chatting with all of you. If you missed the show, don't worry, it will be coming to you and a (lightly edited) bonus episode in April!

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

• Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer on Goodreads
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy on Goodreads
• The Expanse book series by James S.A. Corey on Goodreads
• The Expanse TV series Wikipedia entry
• Belter Creole Wikipedia entry
• Interview with the creator of Belter Creole, Nick Farmer
• Dominique Tipper entry on The Expanse Wiki
• The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #1) by M.R. Carey on Goodreads
• Lingthusiasm bonus episode ‘Speakest Thou Ye Olde English?'
• Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) by Tamsyn Muir on Goodreads
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin on Goodreads

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript of this episode is available as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Mastodon. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page. Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

To chat about this episode and other lingthusiastic topics with your fellow linguistics fans, join us on the Lingthusiasm Discord server.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, and our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.