Letters to the Editor SpecGram Vol CLXX, No 4 Contents Linguimericks, Etc.—Book ११

“Conlang” Added to Oxford English Dictionary

SpecGram Wire Services

Rejoicing has swept through the conlanging community at the news that the word “conlang” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. A spokesman for the Language Creation Society greeted the news by saying, “We’re all delighted. This word was itself created by conlangers to describe their art. We conlangers invent words all the timeit’s what we like doingbut to get one into a real dictionary, well, that’s the ultimate accolade.”

Not everybody welcomed the announcement, however. Jonny Scotland, of the Wikimedia Foundation, told SpecGram, “Look, we’ve been trying to keep the conlangers out of Wikipedia for years, under the policy of Wikipedia Is Not For Your Dorky Hobby, It’s For Mine. Now that ‘conlang’ is in the OED, they’ll all think it’s more important than internet memes like ‘All Your Base Are Belong To Us’.”

A spokesman for Oxford Dictionaries said, “The time has come for the OED to give conlanging the recognition it deserves. We have had a long relationship with the conlang community. J.R.R. Tolkien himself was an important contributor to the dictionary. We will now be checking all his work to make sure he wasn’t just making it all up.”

Letters to the Editor
Linguimericks, Etc.Book ११
SpecGram Vol CLXX, No 4 Contents