List of constructed languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This list of constructed languages is in alphabetical order, and divided into auxiliary, engineered, and artistic (including fictional) languages, and their respective subgenres.

Contents

[edit] Auxiliary languages

[edit] Spoken (major)

The following are languages that have generated significant followings, or which have been of significance in the history of auxiliary languages.

Language name ISO Year of first
publication
Creator Comments
Volapük vo, vol 1879–1880 Johann Martin Schleyer First to generate international interest in IALs
Esperanto eo, epo 1887 L. L. Zamenhof Fluent speakers: est. 100,000 to 2 million; native: 200 to 2000 (1996, est.) [1]. The most popular constructed language.
Idiom Neutral 1902 Waldemar Rosenberger A naturalistic IAL by a former advocate of Volapük
Latino sine Flexione 1903 Giuseppe Peano "Latin without inflections," it replaced Idiom Neutral in 1908
Ido io, ido 1907 A group of reformist Esperanto speakers The most successful offspring of Esperanto
Occidental ie, ile 1922 Edgar de Wahl A sophisticated naturalistic IAL (Interlingue)
Novial nov 1928 Otto Jespersen Another sophisticated naturalistic IAL
Glosa igs 1943 Lancelot Hogben, et al. Originally called Interglossa, has a strong Greco-Latin vocabulary
Interlingua ia, ina 1951 International Auxiliary Language Association A large project to discover common European vocabulary

[edit] Spoken (minor)

There have been literally hundreds of proposals for auxiliary languages, and more continue to be created. The following are languages with some notability, either historically or because of unusual characteristics.

Language name ISO Year of first
publication
Creator Comments
Adjuvilo 1908 Claudius Colas an esperantido created to cause dissent among Idoists
Afrihili afh 1970 K. A. Kumi Attobrah a pan-African language
Babm 1962 Rikichi Okamoto noted for using latin letters as an abjad
Communicationssprache 1839 Joseph Schipfer based on French
Esperanto II 1937 René de Saussure last of the esperantidos
Europanto eur 1996 Diego Marani a "linguistic jest"
Kotava avk 1978 Staren Fetcey a sophisticated a priori IAL
Lingua Franca Nova lfn 1998 Dr. C. George Boeree and others Romance vocabulary with creole-like grammar
Lingua sistemfrater 1957 Pham Xuan Thai Greco-Latin vocabulary with southeast Asian grammar
Modern Indo-European 2006 Carlos Quiles and María Teresa Batalla modernized Proto-Indo-European
Mondial 1940s Dr. Helge Heimer naturalistic European language
Mundolinco 1888 J. Braakman the first esperantido
Neo 1961 Arturo Alfandari a very terse European language
Nuwaubic 1970s? Malachi Z. York the language of a black supremacist religious group
Poliespo 1990s? Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah Esperanto grammar with significant Cherokee vocabulary
Románico 1991 a pan-Romance language with esperanto-like features
Solresol 1827 François Sudre the famous "musical language"
Sona 1935 Kenneth Searight best known attempt at universality of vocabulary
Spokil 1887 or 1890 Adolph Nicolas an a priori language by a former Volapük advocate
Toki Pona 2001 Sonja Elen Kisa highly simplified language with restricted vocabulary
Universalglot 1868 Jean Pirro arguably the first IAL, predating even Volapük

[edit] Controlled languages

Controlled languages are natural languages that have in some way been altered to make them simpler, easier to use, or more acceptable to those who do not speak the original language well. Most of these have been based on English.

[edit] Visual languages

Visual languages use symbols or movements in place of the spoken word.

[edit] Engineered languages

[edit] Human-usable

[edit] Knowledge representation

[edit] Artistic languages

[edit] Languages used in fiction

[edit] Literature

[edit] Comic books

[edit] Movies, television and radio

[edit] Unnamed languages

[edit] Music

[edit] Performance

  • Grammelot (Cirquish) is a "gibberish" that goes back to the 16th century, used by performers, including those of Cirque du Soleil

[edit] Games

[edit] Internet-based

[edit] Alternative languages

[edit] Micronational languages

[edit] Personal languages

[edit] Language games

[edit] Toys

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ Ethnologue report for language code:epo
  2. ^ Standard language references such as Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds., The World's Writing Systems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) (990 pages); David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Cambridge University Press, 1997); and Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages (Cambridge University Press, 2004) (1162 pages) contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian." "Reformed Egyptian" is also ignored in Andrew Robinson, Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts (New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), although it is mentioned in Stephen Williams, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).

[edit] See also