Constructed languages portal
A planned or constructed language — known colloquially or informally as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally. There are many possible reasons to create a constructed language: to ease human communication (see international auxiliary language and code); to bring fiction or an associated constructed world to life; linguistic experimentation; artistic creation; and language games.
The expression planned language is sometimes used to mean international auxiliary languages and other languages intended for actual use in human communication. Some prefer it to the more common terms "constructed", as that term may have pejorative connotations in some languages. Outside the Esperanto community, the term language planning means the prescriptions given to a natural language to standardize it; in this regard, even "natural languages" may be artificial in some respects. In the case of prescriptive grammars, where wholly artificial rules exist, the line is difficult to draw. The term "glossopoeia," coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, is also used to mean language construction, particularly construction of artistic languages.
Language of the month (April)
Lingua Franca Nova (abbreviated LFN) is an auxiliary constructed language created by Dr. C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. Its vocabulary is based on the Romance languages French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. The grammar is highly reduced and similar to the Romance creoles. The language has phonemic spelling, using 22 letters of either the Latin or Cyrillic scripts.
Boeree began working on LFN in 1965, with the goal to create a simple, creole-like international auxiliary language. He was inspired by the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a pidgin used in the Mediterranean in centuries past, and by creoles such as Papiamento, Haitian Creole, and Bislama. He used French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan as the basis for his new language. LFN was first presented on the Internet in 1998. A Yahoo! Group was formed in 2002 by Bjorn Madsen and today has more than 250 members. Group members have contributed significantly to the further evolution of the language. Stefan Fisahn created a wiki for the language in 2005. A few issues of a journal called Orizones Nova (New Horizons) were published online by David MacLeod in late 2006 and early 2007. Also in 2007, Igor Vasiljevic began a Facebook page, which now has over 70 members. LFN was given an ISO 639-3 designation (lfn) by SIL in January 2008. Find out more...
Did you know...
...that Adjuvilo, although it was a fully developed language, was merely created to help create dissent in the then-growing Ido movement?
...that Winston Churchill initially supported Basic English as an international language, but was put off when he was told that "blood, toil, tears and sweat" translates as "blood, hard work, eyewash and body water"?
...that Kēlen is a constructed language that has no verbs, but still is able to express anything?
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