View source for Aklo

{{Short description|Fictional Language}}
'''Aklo''' is the name of a fictional language that has been used by many authors from its first reference in 1899.<ref name = DictionaryFictionalLang>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fA5NhKLOxdYC&dq=Aklo&pg=PA5 The Dictionary of Made-Up Languages] By Stephen D. Rogers {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011112157/http://books.google.com/books?id=fA5NhKLOxdYC&pg=PA5&dq=Aklo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=j4NGUoSKFMKmyQGY-4GoBw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Aklo&f=false |date=2013-10-11 }}</ref> The language is said to have mystical powers.<ref name = DictionaryFictionalLang/><ref name=FinTimes>[http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/47806ff8-66e1-11e0-8d88-00144feab49a.html#axzz2gAj1QfW7 The List: Five fictional languages] James Lovegrove Financial Times April 15, 2011</ref>

Aklo was first mentioned by [[Arthur Machen]]<ref name=FinTimes/> in his 1899 story "[[The White People]]".<ref name=DictionaryFictionalLang/><ref name=EncyFictLang>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cQhke8K9G60C&dq=Aklo&pg=PA83 Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages] By Stephen Cain. Greenwood</ref> Aklo was mentioned but not described in detail by Machen, being noted in passing by the story's narrator as part of a secretive game or ritual.

[[H. P. Lovecraft]] admired the Machen story, and used Aklo<ref name = LovecraftLexicon>[https://www.amazon.com/Lovecraft-Lexicon-Readers-Persons-Places/dp/1561841293#reader_1561841293 Lovecraft Lexicon] Anthony Pearsall. New Falcon Publications</ref>  in his [[Cthulhu Mythos]] stories<ref name=FinTimes/>  "[[The Dunwich Horror]]" and "[[The Haunter of the Dark]]".<ref name = DictionaryFictionalLang/> The authors who have used Aklo have played into the fiction that the language has magical powers, and so have not included much detail to prevent "some careless reader from incant[ing] a spell capable of calling forth evil".<ref name = DictionaryFictionalLang/>

In ''[[The Illuminatus! Trilogy]]'' by [[Robert Shea]] and [[Robert Anton Wilson]], Aklo appears as a language<ref name = DictionaryFictionalLang/> used in [[Black Mass]]es and by the [[Illuminati]].

[[Alan Moore]] later used Aklo in his Lovecraft tribute short story and 2003 comic ''[[Alan Moore's The Courtyard|The Courtyard]]'',<ref name = DictionaryFictionalLang/> in his 2010 comic ''[[Neonomicon]]'' and again in ''[[Providence (comic)|Providence]]''. In his adaptation, Aklo is not just an alien language, but a key that opens doors inside the human mind which is "connected to Moore's general view on actual magic and the role of words in modifying a human's perception of reality."<ref>[http://comicsforum.org/2012/09/19/the-shadow-over-northampton-the-transmogrification-of-the-lovecraft-mythos-by-alan-moore-by-daniel-l-werneck/ The Shadow Over Northampton: The Transmogrification Of The Lovecraft Mythos By Alan Moore] Daniel L. Werneck</ref>

The [[Pathfinder RPG]], published by [[Paizo]], uses Aklo as the language of several subterranean, otherworldly, or otherwise Lovecraftian species in the game's universe, such as aboleths, [[Gibbering Mouther|gibbering mouthers]], and [[shoggoth]]s.<ref name=paizo>{{cite web|title=Linguistics|url=http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/linguistics.html|publisher=Paizo|accessdate=28 August 2012}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=September 2013}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Arthur Machen}}
{{Cthulhu Mythos}}
{{H.P. Lovecraft}}

[[Category:Fictional languages]]
[[Category:Constructed languages introduced in the 1890s]]
[[Category:Cthulhu Mythos]]


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