Portal:Constructed languages


Introduction

The Conlang Flag, a symbol of language construction created by subscribers to the CONLANG mailing list, which represents the Tower of Babel against a rising sun

A constructed language is a language for communication between humans (i.e. not with or between computers) but unlike a language that emerges from human interaction, is intentionally devised for a particular purpose. Constructed language is often shortened to conlang and is a relatively broad term that encompasses subcategories including: fictional, artificial, engineered, planned and invented. A constructed language may include natural language aspects including phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary. Interlinguistics includes the study of constructed languages. (Full article...)

Selected language

Brithenig is an invented language, or constructed language ("conlang"). It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it.

Brithenig was not developed to be used in the real world, like Esperanto or Interlingua, nor to provide detail to a work of fiction, like Klingon from the Star Trek scenarios. Rather, Brithenig started as a thought experiment to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin had displaced the native Celtic language as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain. The result is an artificial sister language to French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Occitan and Italian which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected the Welsh language, and words that are borrowed from the Brittonic languages and from English throughout its pseudo-history. One important distinction between Brithenig and Welsh is that while Welsh is P-Celtic, Latin was a Q-Italic language (as opposed to P-Italic, like Oscan), and this trait was passed onto Brithenig.

Similar efforts to extrapolate Romance languages are Breathanach (influenced by the other branch of Celtic), Judajca (influenced by Hebrew), Þrjótrunn (a non-Ill Bethisad language influenced by Icelandic), Wenedyk (influenced by Polish), and Xliponian (which experienced a Grimm's law-like sound shift). It has also inspired Wessisc, a hypothetical Germanic language influenced by contact with Old Celtic. Find out more...

Did you know...

...that the Marquis Louis de Beaufront, one of the creators of Ido, was not really a marquis?
...that two different constructed languages have claimed the name Interlingua, and one the name Interlingue?
...that Gottfried Leibniz was not only a famous scientist, but also the creator of a language named Characteristica universalis?

Current events

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Corresponding categories

Constructed languages
Constructed-language media
Artistic languages
Books about constructed languages
Constructed languages by century of introduction
Comparison of constructed languages
Constructed language creators
Constructed languages resources
Constructed scripts
Controlled natural languages
Constructed languages by decade of introduction
Engineered languages
Grammars of constructed languages
Interlinguistics
International auxiliary languages
Language games
Musical languages
Constructed language organizations
Constructed language speakers
Toki Pona
Wikipedias in constructed languages
Zonal auxiliary languages
Constructed language stubs

Projects

You are invited to participate in WikiProject Constructed languages, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about constructed languages.

Things you can do


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    Join: Constructed Languages WikiProject & add {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Constructed languages/Userbox}}
    Follow: Recent changes in related articles
    Tag: {{WP conlangs}}, {{Constructed languages}}, and {{Infobox language}} (see WP:CL Templates)
    Evaluate: Everything in Category:Unassessed constructed language articles
    Report: Edit wars and deletions
    Expand: everything in category:Constructed language stubs
    Requests:
Several articles about constructed languages have been deleted for lack of verifiability, independent resources or notability. If you think one of the following subjects meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, don't hesitate dig it up from the graveyard, but don't forget to add proper references:
    Abakwi, Ancient Language, Arovën, Baza, Bluddian, Dremlang, Eaiea, Eloi, Ekspreso, Esperando, Fasile, Glide, Herman Miller, Language Creation Society, Latejami, Mezhdunarodny Nauchny Yazyk, Mirad, Modern Indo-European, Mondlango, Musbrek, Noxilo, Or'zet, Romanica (rd), Romanova (rd), Signuno, Sperethiel, Szkev, Tceqli/Ceqli, Thosk, Tokcir, Troscann, Unas, UNI, Universalspråket, Vorlin.

Articles

Constructed language types

A priori language, Artistic language, Constructed language, Constructed script, Controlled natural language, Engineered language, Experimental language, Fictional language, International auxiliary language, Language game, Logical language, Musical language, Oligosynthetic language, Pasigraphy, Philosophical language, Pivot language, Relexification, Universal language, Whistled language, Zonal auxiliary language (Pan-Germanic, Pan-Romance, Pan-Slavic)

General language types

Agglutinative language, Analytic language, Inflectional language, Fusional language, Isolating language, Polysynthetic language, Synthetic language

See also: Interlinguistics/Cosmoglottics, List of constructed languages, List of constructed scripts, List of constructed languages with Wikipedias


Esperanto flag
Esperanto flag

Languages: Adjuvilo, Afrihili, aUI, Babm, Basic English, Bolak (Blue Language), Budinos, Communicationssprache, Dutton Speedwords, Efatese, Esperanto, Esperanto II, Eurolengo, Europanto, Folkspraak, Français fondamental, Globish, Glosa, Guosa, Idiom Neutral, Ido, Interglossa, Interlingua, Interlingue (Occidental), Interslavic, Intal, Kotava, Langue nouvelle, Latino sine flexione, Lingua Franca Nova, Lingua sistemfrater, Lingwa de planeta, Mondial, Mundolinco, Nal Bino, Neo, Novial, Ortatürk, Pasilingua, Poliespo, Romániço, Romanid, Sambahsa, Slovianski, Slovio, Simplified Technical English, Solresol, Sona, Tutonish, Universal, Universalglot, Uropi, Unish, Volapük

Creators: Arturo Alfandari, Louis de Beaufront, C. George Boeree, Léon Bollack, Claudius Colas, Louis Couturat, Reginald J. G. Dutton, Alexander Gode, Ján Herkeľ, Lancelot Hogben, Otto Jespersen, Arie de Jong, Juraj Križanić, Léopold Leau, Matija Majar, Diego Marani, Elias Molee, Charles Kay Ogden, Giuseppe Peano, Jean Pirro, Waldemar Rosenberger, Joseph Schipfer, Johann Martin Schleyer, Kenneth Searight, Jan van Steenbergen, Paul Steiner, Petro Stojan, François Sudre, Edgar de Wahl, Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof

Language comparisons: Esperanto and Ido, Esperanto and Interlingua, Esperanto and Novial, Ido and Interlingua, Ido and Novial

See also: Arcaicam Esperantom, Esperantido, Proto-Esperanto, Reformed Esperanto


Lojban logo
Lojban logo

Languages: An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, aUI, Blissymbols, Characteristica universalis, CycL, Gibson Code, Ilaksh, Isotype, Ithkuil, Kalaba-X, Láadan, Lincos, Lingua generalis, Loglan, Logopandecteision, Lojban, Loom, Ro, Toki Pona

Creators: Charles K. Bliss, James Cooke Brown, George Dalgarno, René Descartes, Hans Freudenthal, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Francis Lodwick, Kenneth Lee Pike, John Wilkins

Language comparisons: Lojban and Loglan


Artistic and fictional languages

Languages: Adûnaic, Aklo, Al Bhed, Alltongue, Asa'pili, Ascian, Atlantean, Aulëan, Babel-17, Balaibalan, Baronh, Barsoomian, Belter Creole, Black Speech, Brithenig, Chakobsa, Chorukor, Cirquish, Common Eldarin, Darkovan, D'ni, Doriathrin, Dothraki, Dritok, Enchanta, Enochian, Furbish, Galach, Gargish, Gnommish, Goa'uld, Huttese, Iotic, Kēlen, Khuzdul, Klingon, Klingonaase, Koalang, Kobaïan, Ku, Láadan, The Languages of Pao, Lapine, The Lexicon of Comicana, Linguacode, Loxian, Lydnevi, Mandalorian, Mangani, Marain, Mänti, Mezangelle, Moss, Nadsat, Na'vi, Newspeak, Old Tongue, Pravic, Ptydepe, Quenya, Rihannsu, Shyriiwook, Simlish, Sindarin, Speedtalk, Spocanian, Starckdeutsch, Stark, Starsza Mowa, Syldavian, Taliska, Talossan, Telerin, Teonaht, Tho Fan, Transpiranto, Tsolyáni, Utopian, Vendergood, Verdurian, Valyrian, Wenedyk, Zaum

Scripts: Aurebesh, Cirth, Sarati, Tengwar

Creators: Richard Adams, M. A. R. Barker, Anthony Burgess, Sally Caves, Samuel R. Delany, Suzette Doctolero, Diane Duane, Suzette Haden Elgin, Paul Frommer, Václav Havel, Frank Herbert, Hergé, Madhan Karky, Ursula K. Le Guin, Barry B. Longyear, Hiroyuki Morioka, Marc Okrand, George Orwell, David J. Peterson, Poto and Cabengo, George Psalmanazar, Mark Rosenfelder, David Salo, Andrzej Sapkowski, Jan van Steenbergen, Daniel Tammet, J. R. R. Tolkien, Stanley Unwin, Christian Vander, Xul Solar, Marion Zimmer Bradley

See also: Alien language, Codex Seraphinianus, Elvish languages, False writing system, Languages in Star Wars, Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien (Elvish languages (Middle-earth)), North Slavic languages


Constructed languages for special uses

Languages: Bongo-Bongo, Boontling, Brajabuli, Damin, Eskayan, High Icelandic, Iazychie, International Sign (Gestuno), Kesen dialect, Lingua Ignota, LoCoS, Medefaidrin, Nuwaubic, Palawa kani, Polari, Runyakitara, Tadoma, Timerio, Yerkish

See also: John Lyons, Voynich manuscript


Constructed writing systems for natural languages

Writing systems: Cherokee syllabary, Cree syllabics, Deseret alphabet, Hangul, Landsmål, Nynorsk, Shavian alphabet

Creators: Ivar Aasen, James Evans, William Fulco, Ronald Kingsley Read, Heinrich Schmid, Sequoyah


Organizations and regulating bodies

Akademio de Esperanto, Centre de documentation et d'étude sur la langue internationale, Esperanto Museum and Collection of Planned Languages, International Auxiliary Language Association, International Volapük Academy, Klingon Language Institute, Logical Language Group, Uniono por la Linguo Internaciona Ido


Miscellaneous

A Secret Vice, Bible translations into fictional languages, Conlanger, Conlanging - The Art of Crafting Tongues, Cosmoglottics, Esperantology, Ill Bethisad, Interlinguistics, ISO, SIL, and BCP language codes for constructed languages, Langmaker, Language planning, Language reform, Zompist.com

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject: