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An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose vocabulary and grammar were specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture like a natural language. Some, like natural languages, are designed for use in human communication (usually to function as international auxiliary languages), but others are created for use in fiction, linguistic experimentation, secrecy (codes), or for the experience of doing so. Conlangers differ on whether linguistic creation of the latter kind is to be considered an art or a hobby. These languages are sometimes associated with conworlds.
The term planned language is also used, when referring to international auxiliary languages, and by those who may object to the more common term "artificial". Speakers of Esperanto, for example, have argued that "Esperanto is an artificial language like an automobile is an artificial horse".
Constructed languages are often divided into a priori languages, in which much of the grammar and vocabulary is created from scratch (using the author's imagination or automatic computational means), and a posteriori languages, where the grammar and vocabulary are derived from one or more natural languages. A posteriori planned languages can be further divided into naturalistic planned languages - which closely follow the natural languages from which they are patterned in order to minimize learning time - and schematic planned languages, whose features are deliberately simplified or synthesized from various sources.
Fictional and experimental languages can also be naturalistic, in the sense that they are meant to sound natural and, if derived a posteriori, they try to follow natural rules of phonological, lexical and grammatical change. Since these languages are not usually intended for easy learning or communication, a naturalistic fictional language tends to be more difficult and complex, not less (because it tries to mimic common behaviours of natural languages such as irregular verbs and nouns, complicated phonological rules, etc.).
In light of the above, most constructed languages can broadly be divided as follows:
A constructed language can have "native" speakers, if children learn it at an early age from parents who have learned the language. Esperanto has a considerable number of native speakers, variously estimated to be between 200 and 2000. A member of the Klingon Language Institute, d'Armond Speers, attempted to raise his son as a native Klingon speaker, but found that at that time the Klingon vocabulary was not quite large enough to express the large number of objects normally found in the home, such as "table" or "bottle".
Proponents of particular constructed languages often have many reasons for using them. Among these, the famous but disputed Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is often cited; this claims that the language one speaks essentially limits (or expands) the way in which one thinks. Thus, a "better" language should allow the speaker to reach some elevated level of intelligence, or to encompass more diverse points of view. Many question the validity of this claim.
Auxiliary languages
Historic auxlangs
Languages published before 1952.
Recent auxlangs
Languages published from 1952 on; some of these were only published online.
Artistic languages
Languages of fictional worlds and peoples
Professional artlangs
Languages that were professionally published in books or multimedia.
- Utopian language, appearing in a poem by Petrus Gilles in a poem accompanying Thomas More's Utopia
- Several languages spoken by Panurgue in Rabelais' Pantagruel (1532)
- Atlantean language, in the Disney movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
- Babel-17, in Babel-17 by Samuel Delany
- Baronh, language of Abh in Seikai no Monsho (Crest of the Stars) and others, by Morioka Hiroyuki
- Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini appears to be written in a constructed language which is presumably the language of the alien civilization the book describes.
- Drac, language of alien species in Barry B. Longyear's The Enemy Papers
- D'ni, the language spoken by the subterranean D'ni people in the Myst series of games and novels
- Gargish language, used in the Ultima computer game series, by the gargoyle race
- Klingon, in the Star Trek movie and television series
- Kobaian, from the fictional planet created by French musician Christian Vander and the language sung by his progressive rock band Magma
- Láadan, in Suzette Haden Elgin's science fiction novel Native Tongue and sequels
- Languages of Middle-earth: Sindarin, Quenya, Khuzdûl, and others in the books by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Lapine, in Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Marain, in The Culture novels of Ian M. Banks
- Nadsat slang, in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- Newspeak, in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
- Pravic and Iotic, in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
- Syldavian, in some of Hergé's Tintin stories
See also: Fictional language and List of fictional languages.
Amateur artlangs
Languages published only on the Web:
- Aingeljã, also known as Angelian, which is a neo-romance conlang created by the Spanish inventor �ngel Serrano.
- Brithenig, created by the inventor of the alternate history of Ill Bethisad, Andrew Smith.
- Dastmen, created by the Spanish Juan M. Jiménez Noguera in 1984.
- Fyksian, created by the inventor of Fyksland (http://www.vaijska.net), James Wong (http://www.kvasir.org).
- Wenedyk (Venedic in English), a language of the alternate history of Ill Bethisad created by Jan van Steenbergen.
- Verdurian, one of several languages created for the fictional planet of Almea by Mark Rosenfelder.
- DiLingo, a comical rhyming language created, ostensibly, by sUmUs cAcOOnUs, D.E. (true identity undetermined).
Logical languages
Human-usable loglangs
Knowledge-representation loglangs
Other conlang types
Non-verbal languages
See also
References
- Alan Libert (2000): A priori artificial languages. Lincom Europa, Munich. ISBN 3-89586-667-9
External links
Communities
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ar:لغات اصطناعية
cs:Umìlý jazyk
da:Kunstsprog
de:Künstliche Sprache
eo:Konstruita lingvo
fr:Langue construite
ia:Lingua artificial
it:Lingua artificiale
sw:Lugha iliyotengenezwa
hu:Mesterséges nyelv
nl:Kunsttaal
ja:人工言語
jbo:runbau
pl:Języki sztuczne
ro:Limbă artificială
sv:Konstgjorda språk
ru:Искусственные языки
tokipona:toki sin
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