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Changing vocabulary books
Feb 18, 2016 at 4:45am
Does anyone remember those novels where there was a big dictionary in the back for nonsense words that replaced words in the story? By the end of the book you were reading using the weird vocabulary?
Does anyone know what were those called?
(Or where to find them?)
Does anyone know what were those called?
(Or where to find them?)
Feb 18, 2016 at 5:39am
It wasn't "madlibs", was it?
Last edited on Feb 18, 2016 at 5:39am
Feb 18, 2016 at 3:25pm
No, they were actual, full-length novels.
The reader didn't get to make up the (new) words.
The trick was that by introducing the new vocabulary fairly slowly through the novel, by the time you got to the end you were reading almost entirely with the new vocabulary.
The reader didn't get to make up the (new) words.
The trick was that by introducing the new vocabulary fairly slowly through the novel, by the time you got to the end you were reading almost entirely with the new vocabulary.
Feb 18, 2016 at 5:41pm
Off the top of my head, virtually anything written by Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll or Dr Suess. But none of those had a dictionary in the back.
What was the target audience for these? I remember some phonetic exercises I did with my daughter when I was teaching her how to read that sound exactly like what you are describing except that you could never mistake them for full length novels.
What was the target audience for these? I remember some phonetic exercises I did with my daughter when I was teaching her how to read that sound exactly like what you are describing except that you could never mistake them for full length novels.
Feb 18, 2016 at 7:10pm
No, no.
This wasn't topical humor words (Shakespeare) or doublespeak (Carroll) or funny gibberish (Seuss), nor was it to teach phonics or anything similar.
Besides telling the story, the whole point of these books was to change the way you thought about the words and the language itself.
I don't know that there was any wider purpose than the novelty of it.
This wasn't topical humor words (Shakespeare) or doublespeak (Carroll) or funny gibberish (Seuss), nor was it to teach phonics or anything similar.
Besides telling the story, the whole point of these books was to change the way you thought about the words and the language itself.
I don't know that there was any wider purpose than the novelty of it.
Feb 19, 2016 at 3:55pm
I have to say that I've been strangely fixated on this question and I have no idea why. What you're describing sounds like the books of "sniglets" but I'm pretty sure that those were all dictionary style books; there weren't any novels. I think that this is the most promising list I've found so far: http://lithub.com/ten-great-books-with-their-own-languages/
Do you remember what the genre was?
Do you remember what the genre was?
Feb 19, 2016 at 6:28pm
I haven't heard of this type of novel, but it would be really cool to write a program that converts a book into this format, but for a legit language (chinese for example)
Feb 20, 2016 at 1:11am
Well, I was very young. I have a very vague memory of them, so I don't remember the genre and they seemed long to me at the time (and thick in hand) but I may be off.
I'll definitely look through your list Computergeek01. It's possible one of those was what I'm thinking of.
My vague memory tells me there was a series. You definitely have the right idea, though.
I'll definitely look through your list Computergeek01. It's possible one of those was what I'm thinking of.
My vague memory tells me there was a series. You definitely have the right idea, though.
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