Communication and Constructed Languages: from Esperanto to Elvish to AI COMMS5006

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Critical Studies
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

This course examines constructed languages, their literary applications, transnational networks, the media through which they flourish, and relation to AI. It explores the history of constructed languages past and present, from Volapük and Esperanto to the languages of Tolkien to language generator platforms such a Vlgarland, and discusses the relation of these languages to global communication, cosmopolitanism, Eurocentrism, and nationalistic agendas. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with the challenges and opportunities of invented languages in the age of AI. Assessment will include a podcast and creative exercise.

Timetable

10x 2hr timetabled on-campus seminar

 

This is one of the MSc options in Communications and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

Standard entry to Masters at College level.

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

1000 word Learning journal (25%)

10-12 minute podcast (25%)

2000 word Written assignment (including a writing example in either an existing constructed language, or one created using an online platform) (50%)

Course Aims

This course aims to:

• introduce the history and ideology of constructed languages from the nineteenth century to the present day, and their relation to IA

• identify the means of communication through which these languages circulated in the past and today

• enable critical reflection on how constructed languages serve practical and ideological agendas

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• understand the way in which constructed languages challenge assumptions about language and global communication

• analyse how constructed languages work in relation to readership, transnational networks, communication media, and AI

• engage creatively with digital platforms to create a constructive language and write piece of short fiction in it; reflect critically on their attempt in relation to the concepts studied in the course

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.