I’m currently reading R.F. Kuang’s “Babel,” where the narrative centers around silver-working magic—a practice involving silver and, crucially, languages. Though I’m only at Chapter 7, silver-working has been frequently mentioned, yet not fully explored. The languages discussed so far are what one might classify as natural languages like English, Chinese, Spanish, French, and Arabic.
As I read the story, I ponder about the compatibility of silver-working with conlangs or artificially crafted languages. Could silver-working function effectively with conlangs? It seems that conlangs might offer unique advantages in this world.
I wonder if scholars could exploit this by creating a language featuring concepts or ideas without direct equivalents to English , forming a kind of artificial match-pairs. Create words for a language to seek effects not seen otherwise.
by Alcast01