I Get What I Want: In Less Than One Year!

Last February, I observed "A new blog called 'Tenser, Said the Tensor' kicks off a series of posts on lingusitics in science fiction," and titled the item "The Languages of Pao Next, Please."

Finally, my wish is granted.

"The Languages of Pao is first and foremost about a particular idea from linguistic theory--it's a novel-length exploration of a particularly strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (hereafter SWH), the idea that our patterns of thought are affected by the features of the language we speak. As far as I can tell, most linguists don't believe this hypothesis (at least not in its strong form), but it makes for an interesting speculative starting point for a science fiction novel."

Indeed--this was one of my favorite novels as a teenager, and I still think it's one of the best science fiction stories centered around a "soft" science.