Koalang
Koalang is a term coined by Janusz A. Zajdel, a Polish science-fiction writer. It denotes a language used by people in a totalitarian world called Paradyzja, in Zajdel's 1984 novel of the same name.[1] The "ko-al" in "koalang" derives from the Polish words 'kojarzeniowo-aluzyjny' ("associative-allusive").[2]
Because Paradyzja was a space station, where activity was tracked by automatic cameras and analysed (mostly) by computers, the people there created an Aesopian language, full of metaphors, impossible for computers to grasp. The meaning of every sentence depended on the context. For example, the sentence, "I dreamt about blue angels last night", meant: "I was visited by the police last night."
The software that analyzed sentences was self-learning; therefore a phrase used to describe something metaphorically, should not be used again in the same context.
Zajdel paid a tribute to George Orwell's newspeak, and to Aldous Huxley, by naming one of the main characters Nikor Orley Huxwell.
In the 1980s, the youth magazine Na Przełaj (Short Cut) printed rock-song lyrics in a column titled KOALANG, hinting that the songs' texts contained content camouflaged from censorship.[2]
See also
References
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