List of constructed languages

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The following list of notable constructed languages is divided into auxiliary, ritual, engineered, and artistic (including fictional) languages, and their respective subgenres. All entries on this list have further information on separate Wikipedia articles.

Auxiliary languages[edit]

International auxiliary languages are languages constructed to provide communication among all human beings, or a significant portion, without necessarily replacing native languages.

Name ISO Origin Creator Description
Solresol 1827 François Sudre Based on pitch levels sounded with their solfege syllables (a "musical language") although no knowledge of music is required to learn it.
Communicationssprache 1839 Joseph Schipfer Based on French.
Universalglot 1868 Jean Pirro An early a posteriori language, predating even Volapük.
Volapük vo, vol 1879–1880 Johann Martin Schleyer First to generate international interest in IALs.
Esperanto eo, epo 1887 L. L. Zamenhof The most popular auxiliary language ever invented, including, possibly, up to two million speakers, the highest ever for a constructed language and the only one to date to have its own native speakers (Approximately 1,000).[1]
Spokil 1887 or 1890 Adolph Nicolas An a priori language by a former Volapük advocate.
Mundolinco 1888 J. Braakman The first Esperantido.
Bolak, "Blue Language" 1899 Léon Bollack Prospered fairly well in its initial years; now almost forgotten.
Idiom Neutral 1902 Waldemar Rosenberger A naturalistic IAL by a former advocate of Volapük.
Latino sine Flexione 1903 Giuseppe Peano "Latin without inflection", it replaced Idiom Neutral in 1908.
Ro 1904 Rev. Edward Powell Foster An a priori language using categories of knowledge.
Ido io, ido 1907 A group of reformist Esperanto speakers The most successful offspring of Esperanto.
Adjuvilo 1910 Claudius Colas An Esperantido some believe was created to cause dissent among Idoists.
Occidental ie, ile 1922 Edgar de Wahl A sophisticated naturalistic IAL, also known as Interlingue.
Novial nov 1928 Otto Jespersen Another sophisticated naturalistic IAL by a famous Danish linguist.
Sona 1935 Kenneth Searight Best known attempt at universality of vocabulary.
Esperanto II 1937 René de Saussure Last of linguist Saussure's many Esperantidos.
Mondial 1940s Dr. Helge Heimer Naturalistic European language.
Glosa igs 1943 Lancelot Hogben, et al. Originally called Interglossa, has a strong Greco-Latin vocabulary.
Blissymbols zbl 1949 Charles Bliss An ideographic writing system, with its own grammar and syntax.
Interlingua ia, ina 1951 International Auxiliary Language Association A major effort to systematize the international scientific vocabulary. It aims to be immediately comprehensible by Romance language speakers and to some extent English speakers.
Intal 1956 Erich Weferling An effort to unite the most common systems of constructed languages.
Romanid 1956 Zoltán Magyar A zonal constructed language based on the Romance languages.
Lingua sistemfrater 1957 Pham Xuan Thai Greco-Latin vocabulary with southeast Asian grammar.
Neo neu 1961 Arturo Alfandari A very terse Esperantido.
Babm 1962 Rikichi Okamoto Notable for using Latin letters as a syllabary.
Guosa 1965 Alexander Igbinéwéká Made for use in West Africa.
Arcaicam Esperantom 1969 Manuel Halvelik 'Archaic Esperanto', developed to produce an archaic effect in Esperanto literature.
Afrihili afh 1970 K. A. Kumi Attobrah A pan-African language.
Kotava avk 1978 Staren Fetcey A sophisticated a priori IAL focused on cultural neutrality.
Uropi 1986 Joël Landais Based on the common Indo-European roots and the common grammatical points of the IE languages.
Poliespo 1990s? Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah Esperanto grammar with significant Cherokee vocabulary.
Romániço 1991 Anonymous Vocabulary is derived from common Romance roots.
Europanto 1996 Diego Marani A "linguistic jest" by a European diplomat.
Unish 1996 Language Research Institute, Sejong University Vocabulary from fifteen representative languages.
Lingua Franca Nova lfn 1998 C. George Boeree and others Romance vocabulary with creole-like grammar.
Slovio 1999 Mark Hučko A constructed language based on the Slavic languages and Esperanto grammar.
Interslavic 2006 Ondrej Rečnik, Gabriel Svoboda, Jan van Steenbergen, Igor Polyakov A naturalistic language based on the Slavic languages.
Sambahsa-Mundialect 2007 Olivier Simon Mixture of simplified Proto-Indo-European and other languages.
Lingwa de planeta 2010 Dmitri Ivanov Worldlang based on Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Controlled languages[edit]

Controlled natural languages are natural languages that have been altered to make them simpler, easier to use, or more acceptable in certain circumstances, such as for use by people who do not speak the original language well. The following projects are examples of controlled English:

Name Origin Creator Comments
Basic English 1925 Charles Kay Ogden Seek to limit the language to a given list of common-use words and terms in order to make it simpler to foreign learners or other people who may have difficulties.
Special English 1959 Voice of America
Globish 2004 Jean-Paul Nerrière
E-Prime 1940s D. David Bourland Jr. Eliminates the verb to be with the intent of making writing more expressive and accurate.
Simplified Technical English 1983 European Association of Aerospace Industries Seeks to largely reduce the complexity and ambiguity of technical texts such as manuals.
Parallel English 1998 Madhukar Gogate A constructed language, which is based on, but independent of, English.
Plain English Various Proposes a more direct, short, clear language by avoiding many idioms, jargon and foreign words.

Visual languages[edit]

Visual languages use symbols or movements in place of the spoken word. Constructed sign languages also fall in this category.

Name ISO Origin Creator Comments
Blissymbols zbl 1949 Charles K. Bliss Based on an ideographic writing system.
Gestuno ils 1970s Jasin Maloku International sign language.

Ritual languages[edit]

These are languages in actual religious use by their communities or congregations.

Name ISO Origin Creator Comments
Eskayan esy c. 1920–1940 Mariano Datahan Grammatically based on the Boholano dialect of Cebuano.
Medefaidrin 1930s Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ church Used by this Nigerian Christian church; said to be of sacred origin.
Damin unknown the Lardil people Created by native speakers of Lardil; only click language outside Africa.

Engineered languages[edit]

Engineered languages are devised to test some hypothesis. They fall into three categories: philosophical, experimental and logical. An engineered language may belong to more than one of those categories.

Human-usable[edit]

Name ISO Origin Creator Description
Logopandecteision 1653 Sir Thomas Urquhart Suggestions toward a taxonomic language of great complexity.
Unnamed language 1668 John Wilkins Detailed suggestions for a symbolic language capable of philosophical precision.
Isotype 1925–1934 Otto Neurath et al. A pictographic language.
Loglan 1955 James Cooke Brown Created to test the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis; the inspiration for Lojban.
aUI 1962 W. John Weilgart Each phoneme is also a morpheme and a sememe, so that a single word can express a complex idea.
Ithkuil 1978–2011 John Quijada Complex language designed to express deeper meanings briefly and clearly.
Láadan ldn 1982 Suzette Haden Elgin A tonal language oriented towards women; created to test if natural languages are biased towards men.
Lojban jbo 1987 Logical Language Group logical and syntactically unambiguous language; successor of Loglan.
Toki Pona 2001 Sonja Lang Minimalist language with small vocabulary which reflects Taoist philosophy.

Knowledge representation[edit]

See also: Ontology language

Languages mainly intended for knowledge representation, which are easier for computers to understand.

Knowledge Query and Manipulation Languages

Several well known Knowledge Query and Manipulation Languages have been created from extensive research projects to represent and query knowledge on computers:

Name Acronym Origin Creator Description
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 various syntaxes (XML, Turtle, JSON-LD, RDFa) for its interchange format.
Universal Modeling Language UML 1994–96 Grady Booch
Ivar Jacobson
James Rumbaugh 		Describes 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.
Web Ontology Language OWL 2004, 2009 Various Another knowledge representation language standardized by W3C, and derived from Common Logic.
Others
Name Origin Creator Description
Lincos 1960 Hans Freudenthal
Loom 1970s–1999 Information Sciences Institute
Attempto Controlled English 1995 University of Zurich A controlled natural language that is also a knowledge representation language.[2]
Universal Networking Language (UNL) 1996 United Nations University
CycL

Artistic/fictional languages[edit]

Languages used in fiction[edit]

J. R. R. Tolkien
Further information: Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien
Star Wars
Further information: Languages in Star Wars
Other literature
Name Work Origin Creator Description
Zaum 1913 Velimir Khlebnikov, Aleksei Kruchonykh et al. Poetic tongue elaborated by these Russian Futurists as a "transrational" and "most universal" language "of songs, incantations, and curses."
Newspeak Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949 George Orwell A form of controlled English created by an authoritarian government to gradually reduce the capability of human thought, thus preventing rebellion.
Nadsat slang A Clockwork Orange 1962 Anthony Burgess
Lapine Watership Down 1972 Richard Adams Spoken by rabbits.
Láadan (ldn) Native Tongue and sequels 1984 Suzette Haden Elgin
Starsza Mowa (Elder Speech) Hexer saga (The Witcher) 1993–2013 Andrzej Sapkowski
Baronh Seikai no Monshō (Crest of the Stars) and others 1996 Morioka Hiroyuki Language of Abh in and others.
Comic books
Name Work Origin Creator Description
Syldavian The Adventures of Tintin, mostly in King Ottokar's Sceptre 1938–39 Hergé Fictional West Germanic language of Syldavia, a Balkan kingdom.
Bordurian The Adventures of Tintin, mostly in The Calculus Affair 1954–56 Hergé Language of Borduria, a country bordering Syldavia.
Film
Name Work Origin Creator Description
Klingon Star Trek 1979–present Marc Okrand
Tenctonese Alien Nation film and television series 1988 Van Ling, Kenneth Johnson
Atlantean Atlantis: The Lost Empire 2001 Marc Okrand
Ku The Interpreter 2005 Said el-Gheithy Fictional African language.
Na'vi Avatar 2009 Paul Frommer Spoken by the Na'vi.
Barsoomian John Carter 2012 Paul Frommer, Edgar Rice Burroughs Language of the Martians.
Kilikili Baahubali: The Beginning 2015 Madhan Karky Spoken by the Kalakeyas.[3]
Television
Name Work Origin Creator Description
Vulcan Star Trek: The Original Series 1966–69 Further developed by fans as Golic Vulcan.
Pakuni Land of the Lost television series and film 1974 The language of the Pakuni.
Goa'uld Stargate SG-1 1997–2007 A galactic lingua franca which supposedly influenced Ancient Egyptian.
Enchanta Encantadia and Etheria television series 2005 Suzette Doctolero Spoken by the denizens of Encantadia, known as Encantado(s)/Encantada(s) or Diwata (fairies).
The Valyrian languages and Dothraki Game of Thrones 2011–2019 David J. Peterson
Trigedasleng The 100 2014–present David J. Peterson
Music
Name Origin Creator Description
Kobaïan 1970s Christian Vander Used by French rock group Magma.
Loxian 2005 Roma Ryan Used on Enya's 2005 album Amarantine and 2015 album Dark Sky Island.
Moss 2009 Jackson Moore A language with a musical phonology, modeled on pidgins.
Alunea 2017 Mark Garret Used on Kardashev's 2017 album The Almanac.
Games
Name Work Origin Creator Description
Tsolyani Empire of the Petal Throne 1940s M. A. R. Barker Language of the world of Tékumel as described in this roleplaying game.
Gargish Ultima series 1981–2013 Language of the gargoyle race.
D'ni Myst series 1993–2005 Cyan Worlds Language spoken by the subterranean D'ni people.
Simlish Sim series 1996 Will Wright Babble-like Language spoken by the sims (simulated persons).
Hymnos Ar Tonelico series 2006-2010 Akira Tsuchiya Language designed with strong focus on expressing emotions. Used by Reyvateil to chant song magic.

Toys[edit]

  • Furbish, the default language spoken by Furbies, which can learn English with time.

Internet-based[edit]

Name Origin Creator Description
Teonaht 1962 Sally Caves Language of the Teonim, a race of polydactyl humans who have a cultural history of worshiping catlike deities.
Verdurian and others 1995 Mark Rosenfelder Spoken in the country Verduria of planet Almea.
Dritok 2007 Don Boozer Spoken by the Drushek, a large-eared, long-tailed race without vocal cords that lives in the continent Kryslan.
Kēlen 2009 Sylvia Sotomayor An alien language that lacks verbs, violating a universal feature among natural human languages.

Other[edit]

  • Spocanian, language of Spocania, developed by Rolandt Tweehuysen starting from 1962.

Alternative languages[edit]

Some experimental languages were developed to observe hypotheses of alternative linguistic interactions which could have led to very different modern languages. The following two examples were created for Ill Bethisad, an alternate history project.

Name Origin Creator Description
Brithenig 1996 Andrew Smith A Romance language that replaced native Celtic languages in Great Britain instead of the Germanic Anglo-Saxon.
Wenedyk 2002 Jan van Steenbergen Polish as a Romance language.

Micronational languages[edit]

Personal languages[edit]

Name Origin Creator Description
Lingua Ignota 12th century Hildegard of Bingen Latin-influenced mystical language.
Balaibalan c. 14th to 16th century Muhyî-i Gülşenî Language with mostly a priori vocabulary and written in Arabic script; influenced by Persian, Turkish and Arabic.
Enochian late 16th century John Dee, Edward Kelley Purported Angelic language, possibly used in magic and occultism.
Vendergood early 20th century William James Sidis Based mainly on Latin and Greek, with influence from German, English and Romance languages. Contains eight moods, including Sidis's own strongeable, and has a base twelve number system.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Robert Phillipson. English-Only Europe? 2003. p. 172: "several thousand children worldwide are growing up (in over 2000 families) with Esperanto as one of their mother tongues"
  2. ^ Schwitter, Rolf. "Controlled natural languages for knowledge representation." Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Computational Linguistics: Posters. Association for Computational Linguistics, 2010.
  3. ^ Cinema, Telugu. "Welcome to new language 'Kilikili' from Baahubali". SaddaHaq. Retrieved 2017-06-11.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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