Express Yourself: Language

It's time for another installment in the Express Yourself weekly meme, brought to you by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

Week #3 (Oct. 15th-19th): What language would you like to speak and why?

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Now this is an interesting question for me. I guess my answer depends on a lot of factors.  If I'm asked to choose a real language, I'd have to go with Latin.  Yes, I know it's a dead language, but I find it endlessly fascinating.  Latin is the root of so many languages, and it's the source of many words within my own language.  In that sense, Latin is very much alive.  When I was in high school, I carried an English-Latin dictionary around with me, because I liked to incorporate Latin into my stories through place and species names.  I became quite good at deciphering what Latin phrases meant just by listening to them and puzzling them out by sound and context.  That isn't the same as speaking a language though, and I'd like to know it better.

Now, I'd also like to learn an alien language.  Were we ever to encounter alien life before I die, I'd have to learn their language.  After all, a person's language can tell you all kinds of things about their culture, and I couldn't resist delving into an alien culture.

Going off of that, I've always kind of wanted to learn Klingon.  Yes, it's not an actual alien language, having been developed based off of a television series, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.  And okay, my love of Star Trek probably plays a role in this.  Unfortunately, I'm short and generally nonthreatening.  I'm not sure I could pull off such a gruff guttural language without seeming silly.

And now, I'll quickly mention written languages.  There is a difference between the written and spoken word.  With the written word, I like it when a word looks aesthetically pleasing.  Is that weird?  Probably, but I'm weird, so we can deal with that.  Anyway, I'd love to learn Mandarin, because the characters are complex and interesting.  From the world of fiction, and The Lord of the Rings to be more precise, I'd like to learn how to write Elvish.  Why?  It also looks neat.