List of constructed languages

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

Auxiliary languages

Spoken (major)

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

Spoken (minor)

There have been 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.

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.

• Ander-Saxon (described in the article Anglo-Saxon linguistic purism)
• Basic English
• E-Prime
• Globish
• Plain English
• Simplified English
• Special English

Visual languages

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

• Blissymbols (zbl)
• Gestuno
• Signuno

Engineered languages

Human-usable

• An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language by John Wilkins
• aUI
• Characteristica universalis
• Ilaksh
• Isotype
• Ithkuil
• Láadan (ldn)
• Loglan
• Logopandecteision
• Lojban (jbo)
• Ro
• Unilingua
• Ygyde

Knowledge representation

• Several wellknown Knowledge Query and Manipulation Languages have been created from extensive research projets, to represent and query knowledge on computers:
  • Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF), a precursor for knowledge representation.
  • Common Logic (CL), an ISO standard derived from KIF.
  • Resource Description Framework (RDF), a language standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) based on the principles of Common Logic, which represents knowledge as a directed graph built from unordered sets of "sentences" (in fact, as relational triples: subject, relation, attribute) using a XML syntax for its interchange format. Each element of the triple can be either a simple value (if its semantic value is not specified outside of the relation using it), or identifiers of objects (such as URIs) that are part of enumeration built from another subset of relational triples. The relations may be open (in which case the attributes are not enumerable) or closed in a finite enumerable set whose elements can be easily represented as objects as well with their own identity participating in many different relations for other parts of the knowledge.
    • UML may be used to describe the sets of relations and rules of inference and processing, and SQL may be used to use them in concrete schemas and compact store formats, but RDF designs its own (semantically more powerful) schema language for handling large sets of knowledge data stored in RDF format.
    • RDF is probably useful only for automated machine processing, but its verbosity and complex (for a human) representation mechanisms and inference rules does not qualify it as a human language except in very limited contexts. It is still a specification with extensive research.
  • Web Ontology Language (OWL), another knowledge representation language standardized by W3C, and derived from Common Logic.
• CycL
• The Distributed Language Translation project used a "binary-coded" version of Esperanto as a pivot language between the source language and its translation.
• Lincos
• Loom
• Universal Networking Language (UNL)

Artistic languages

Languages used in fiction

Literature

• Adûnaic, from J. R. R. Tolkien's works
• Aklo, Tsath-yo, and R'lyehian are ancient and obscure languages in the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and others. Aklo is considered by some writers to be the written language of the Serpent People
• Amtorian, spoken in some cultures on the planet Venus in Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs and several sequels. Judged by critic Fredrik Ekman to have "a highly inventive morphology but a far less interesting syntax."^[5]
• Ancient Language in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.
• Angley, Unglish and Ingliss - three languages spoken respectively in Western Europe, North America and the Pacific in the 29th century world of Poul Anderson's Orion Shall Rise. All derived from present-day English, the three are mutually unintelligible, following 800 years of separate development after a 21st century nuclear war and the extensive absorption of words and grammatical forms from French in the first case, Russian, Chinese and Mongolian in the second, and Polynesian in the third.
• Anglic, the dominant language of the declining Galactic empire depicted in Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series, is descended from present-day English but so changed that only professional historians or linguists can understand English texts.
• Anglic: unrelated to the above, seen in the Civiliztion of the Five Galaxies in David Brin's Uplift Trilogies; is descended from modern English, modified to account for the differences in the culture on Earth and its colonies.
• Anglo-French, in the alternate history world of the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett - where England and France were permanently united into a single kingdom by Richard the Lionheart and their languages consequently merged.
• Anglo-French, unconnected with the above, spoken in the dystopian 20th century of Poul Anderson's The Shield of Time where England won the Hundred Years' War and conquered France.
• asa'pili ("world language"), in bolo'bolo, by Swiss author P.M..
• Atlango from Ryszard Antoniszczak (Richard A Antonius) 's works"^[6]
• Atlantean language, a constructed language created for Disney's film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• Babel-17, in Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
• Baronh, language of Abh in Seikai no Monsho (Crest of the Stars) and others, by Morioka Hiroyuki
• Black Speech - language of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Bokonon - language of the Bokononism religion in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.
• 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.
• Chapalli - language of the aliens in Kate Elliott's "Jaran" series, notable for incorporating hand signals to supplement oral meaning and multiple levels of formality used in different parts of a social hierarchy, like Japanese, described from the point of view of a protagonist who is a linguist.
• Common Eldarin from J. R. R. Tolkien's works
• High D'Haran - the ancient, dead language of pre-Great War New World in Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series.
• Dahmek, language spoken on Eho Dahma, a planet with a double-ended spoon-shaped orbit and populated exclusively of women in a binary star system from K Gerard Martin's Carreña book series.
• Drac, language of the alien species in Barry B. Longyear's Enemy Mine and The Enemy Papers
• From Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books:
  • Language of the Making - the basis of all magic, spoken by Dragons as their native tongue and learned with considerable effort by human mages.
  • Hardic - linguistically descended from the above
  • Osskilian, and Kargish - a different family of languages, distantly related
• Elemeno, language of two sisters in Caucasia by Danzy Senna.
• "Expanded English" or "World English", spoken throughout the world in the 22nd century in the Utopian world of H.G.Wells's The Shape of Things to Come.
• The Giant's Fence by Michael Jacobson. ([3])
• Goodenuf English, a form of English used by foreigners in the novel Rainbows End by Vernon Vinge
• Glide, created by Diana Reed Slattery, used by the Death Dancers of The Maze Game
• Groilish, spoken by giants in Giants and the Joneses by Julia Donaldson.
• Gnomish, also Goldogrin from J. R. R. Tolkien's works.
• Gnommish, spoken by the fairies in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.
• Hedgerow Language, a minor, rudementary language used between different species of animals, in Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Gobbledegook is a language spoken by the goblins in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
• High Speech of Gilead from Stephen King's The Dark Tower
• Kesh, in Ursula K. Le Guin's novel Always Coming Home
• Khuzdul from J. R. R. Tolkien's works
• Krakish, in Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
• Láadan (ldn), in Suzette Haden Elgin's science fiction novel Native Tongue and sequels
• Lapine, spoken by the rabbits in Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Linyaari spoken by the Linyaari people of Vhiliinyar in Anne McCaffery's Acorna series.
• Mando'a, created by Karen Traviss, used by the Mandalorians in the Star Wars Republic Commando novels Hard Contact and Triple Zero
• Marain, in The Culture novels of Iain M. Banks
• The Martian language in Percy Greg's Across the Zodiac may have been the first fictional language described using linguistic and grammatical terminology.^[7]
• The Matoran language used by the various sentient species in Bionicle. It is named after its creators the Matoran species.
• Miramish, language spoken on Eho Miriam, a planet with a rounded box-shaped orbit and populated exclusively of women in a binary star system from K Gerard Martin's Carreña book series.
• Mirsua, a power language derived from Miramish, languages spoken on planet Eho Miriam from K Gerard Martin's Carreña book series.
• Molvanian from Molvania, A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry
• Nadsat slang, in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Newspeak, in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (fictional constructed language)
• The "Nautilus Language", spoken on board Jules Verne's famous fictional submarine, in token of crew members having completely renounced their former homelands and backgrounds. Every morning, after scanning the horizon with his binoculars, Nemo's second-in-command says: "Nautron respoc lorni virch". The meaning of these words is never clarified, but their construction seems to indicate that the "Nautilus Language" (its actual name is not given) is based on European languages.
• Nimiash, language spoken on Nimsant, a distant prison planet in a binary star system from K Gerard Martin's Carreña book series.
• Old Solar, in Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
• The Old Language from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.
• The Old Tongue from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series
• Orghast from the Peter Brooks production of the same name invented for the Shiraz/Persepolis festival in Iran in celebration of the Persian state
• Parseltongue, the language of snakes, in the Harry Potter series. The ability of humans to speak it is considered a magic ability.
• Pravic and Iotic, in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Ptydepe, from Václav Havel's play The Memorandum
• Quintaglio from Robert J. Sawyer's Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy
• Quenya from J. R. R. Tolkien's works.
• Qwghlmian from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle
• Rihannsu, spoken by the Rihannsu (Romulans) in the Star Trek novels of Diane Duane
• Spocanian, in Rolandt Tweehuysen's fictional country Spocania
• Sindarin from J. R. R. Tolkien's works.
• The Speech, a universal language in Diane Duane's books.
• Speedtalk, a highly logical and compressed language in Robert A. Heinlein's novella Gulf.
• Stark (short for Star Common), a common interstellar English-based language from Orson Scott Card's Ender series
• Starsza Mowa from Andrzej Sapkowski's Hexer saga
• Troll language from Terry Pratchett's Discworld
• Trinary, a language used by Neo-Dolphins and sometimes Humans, in David Brin's Uplift Trilogies
• Utopian language, appearing in a poem by Petrus Gilles accompanying Thomas More's Utopia
• Whitmanite, spoken by members of a radical Anarchist-Pacifist cult of the same name in Robert A. Heinlein' The Puppet Masters.
• Zaum, poetic tongue elaborated by Velimir Khlebnikov, Aleksei Kruchonykh, and other Russian Futurists as a "transrational" and "most universal" language "of songs, incantations, and curses".
• Zamgrh, spoken by Zombies in the Urban Dead games, and worked out in considerable detail (see [4]).
• Several languages spoken by Panurge in François Rabelais' Pantagruel (1532)
• The Time Machine featured an unnamed language for the Eloi people.
• Jack Womack's Dryco novels feature a future form of English with a modified grammar.

Comic books

• Bordurian in some of Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin, mostly in The Calculus Affair
• Syldavian, in some of Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin, mostly in King Ottokar's Sceptre

Movies and television

• Adspeak in The Year of the Sex Olympics (by Nigel Kneale) is a Newspeak-like impoverished language derived from 60s and 70s British advertising vocabulary.
• Ancient in the Stargate universe (i.e. Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis) is the language of the Ancients, the builders of the Stargates; it is similar in pronunciation to Medieval Latin. The Athosians say prayers in Ancient. (However, when shown onscreen, written Ancient is simply a different character set for English)
• Atlantean created by Marc Okrand for the film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• The Divine Language is a language invented by director Luc Besson and actress Milla Jovovich for the 1997 movie The Fifth Element.
• Dothraki, created by David J. Peterson for the TV series Game of Thrones (based on the books by George R. R. Martin)
• Enchanta, in the Encantadia and Etheria television series in the Philippines, created by the head writer Suzette Doctolero
• Eunoia, in the television series Earth: Final Conflict, consultant Christian Bök.
• Goa'uld, the galactic lingua franca from Stargate SG-1, supposedly influenced Ancient Egyptian
• Klingon (tlhIngan Hol), in the Star Trek movies and television series, created by Marc Okrand
• Krakozhian from The Terminal
• Ku, a fictional African language in the movie The Interpreter (2005)
• Nadsat, the fictional language spoken by Alex and his friends in Clockwork Orange
• Na'vi, the fictional language spoken by the Na'vi in Avatar
• Pakuni, the language of the Pakuni from the Land of the Lost television series and movie.
• Plukanian, the fictional language of the planet Pluk in film Kin-dza-dza!
• Slovetzian, the fictional Slavic language of Slovetzia in the movie The Beautician and the Beast
• Tenctonese from the Alien Nation movie and television series, created by Van Ling and Kenneth Johnson
• Ulam, the language spoken by the prehistoric humans in the movie Quest for Fire, created by Anthony Burgess by melting roots of European languages.
• Vulcan language from Star Trek. Further developed by fans as Golic Vulcan.

Unnamed languages

• Riddley Walker, a 1980 novel by Russell Hoban, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is written entirely in a "devolved" form of English.

Music

• Gulevache: fictional Romance language of the kingdom of Gulevandia in the bilingual opera Cardoso en Gulevandia by the comedy group Les Luthiers.
• Kajiuran, a language created by Japanese composer Yuki Kajiura.
• Kobaïan (Zeuhl), the language used by 70's French rock group Magma.
• Loxian, created by Roma Ryan, used on Enya's 2005 album Amarantine.
• Mohelmot, a forbidden language used by The Residents on the album The Big Bubble: Part Four of the Mole Trilogy.
• Gloatre, the language mostly used among creative activities of Les Légions Noires.
• Unnamed languages, chronologically:
  • “Infernal" language^[8] devised by the composer Hector Berlioz, used for the original version of the Chorus of Shades in Lélio (1831), the Chorus of Demons (“Pandæmonium“) in La damnation de Faust (1846), and the “Dance of Nubian slaves” in Les Troyens (1856-1858).
  • Language constructed by Wim Mertens to be used in his vocal performances (piano/voice) since the 1980s.
  • Language constructed by the Canadian classical composer Claude Vivier, used in works like Trois Airs pour un opéra imaginaire, released 1982.
  • Language featured in the chorus of 2NU's 1991 track "This is Ponderous".
  • Language featured in the soundtrack to the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis, released 1992.
  • Language used in early albums of Russian band 2 Samoleta (rus. "2ва Самолёта") since early 1990s.
  • Language by Yves Barbieux, used in his song "Sanomi" and performed by the Belgian group Urban Trad in the Eurovision Song contest in 2003.
  • Language by Emmanuelle Orange, used in her song "Pialoushka" and performed by Montreal band Eden106, released 2006.

Performance

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

Games

• D'ni, the language spoken by the subterranean D'ni people in Cyan Worlds' Myst series of computer games and novels
• Gargish, used in the Ultima computer game series, by the gargoyle race
• Hymmnos, used by Reyvateils for Song Magic in Ar tonelico
• kiZombie, used by zombies in the Urban Dead MMORPG
• Lashonnu is the language of the Wealdings (the Forest People) in the Gondica role playing game by Anders Blixt
• Mando'a, created by Karen Traviss, used by the Mandalorians in Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Tho Fan, in the Xbox game Jade Empire, created by Wolf Wikeley
• Tsolyani, a language developed by M. A. R. Barker in the mid-to-late 1940s in parallel with the development of his legendarium leading to the world of Tékumel as described in the roleplaying game Empire of the Petal Throne, published by TSR in 1975 and later literary tie-ins.
• Vasudan, the language spoken by the Vasudan race in Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War and in the other titles in the FreeSpace series.
• Simlish is featured in The Sims life-simulation computer game series, a language that is spoken throughout the game.
• Panzerese is a term used by the fans of the Panzer Dragoon series to describe the mix of Russian, Greek, and Latin spoken in the series.
• Raymanese is a language used in the Rayman series, specifically Rayman 2: The Great Escape.

Toys

• Furbish

Internet-based

• Dritok, by Don Boozer
• Kamakawi, by David J. Peterson
• Kēlen, by Sylvia Sotomayor
• Teonaht, by Sally Caves
• Verdurian and several other languages created for the fictional planet of Almea by Mark Rosenfelder

Alternative languages

• Anglish
• Brithenig (bzt), created by the inventor of the alternate history of Ill Bethisad, Andrew Smith
• Several North Slavic languages, inspired by the existence of West, East and South Slavic languages and the absence of a Northern branch
• Wenedyk, a language of the alternate history of Ill Bethisad created by Jan van Steenbergen

Micronational languages

• Talossan, by R. Ben Madison

Personal languages

• Enochian by Edward Kelley
• Lingua Ignota, by Hildegard of Bingen
• Mänti, invented by Daniel Tammet
• Vendergood (1906), invented by William James Sidis when he was eight years old

Language games

• Binaliktad
• Gibberish
• Jeringonza
• Língua do Pê
• Louchebem
• Opish
• Pig Latin
• Rosarigasino
• Rövarspråket
• Sananmuunnos
• Šatrovački
• Starckdeutsch, Starckteutsch
• Tutnese
• Ubbi dubbi
• Verlan
• Vesre

References and notes

See also

• Alien language
• Artificial script
• Comparison of international auxiliary languages
• Constructed language
• Engineered language
• International auxiliary language
• Language game
• List of languages
• Voynich Manuscript

External links

• Language analysis from Linguist List