Constructed languageAn 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".
OverviewConstructed 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 languagesHistoric auxlangsLanguages published before 1952.
Recent auxlangsLanguages published from 1952 on; some of these were only published online.
Artistic languagesArtistic languages include languages of fictional worlds and peoples and for alternate histories, languages for micronations, languages created for humor and self-amusement and languages created for the pleasure of inventing a language. Professional artlangsLanguages that were professionally published in books or multimedia.
Amateur artlangsLanguages published only on the Web:
Logical languagesHuman-usable loglangsKnowledge-representation loglangs
Other conlang typesNon-verbal languages
Language games
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ar:لغات اصطناعية cs:Umělý 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 pt:Língua artificial ro:Limbă artificială sv:Konstgjorda sprĺk ru:Искусственные языки tokipona:toki sin
Categories: Constructed languages | Lists of languages |
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