The legend of the Babylonian pandemonium haunts linguists - from time to time someone tries to come up with a universal language: concise, understandable and easy to learn. Artificial languages are also used in cinema and literature to make fictional worlds even more alive and realistic. “Theories and Practices” made a selection of the most interesting projects of this kind and found out how antonyms are formed in Solresol, how long words can be created in Volapuk and what the most famous quote from “Hamlet” sounds like in Klingon.
Universalglot
Universalglot is the very first artificial language, systematized and developed in the likeness of Latin by the French linguist Jeanne Pirro in 1868. This a posteriori language (it is based on the vocabulary of already existing languages) appeared 10 years earlier than Volapuk and 20 years earlier than Esperanto. It was appreciated only by a small group of people and did not gain much popularity, although Pirro developed it in some detail, creating about 7,000 base words and many verbal morphemes that allow words to be modified.
Alphabet: consists of 26 letters of the Latin and German alphabet.
Pronunciation: Similar to English, but the vowels are pronounced in a Spanish or Italian manner.
Vocabulary: the most famous and easiest words to remember and pronounce were selected from the Romance and Germanic languages. Most of the words are similar to French or German.
Grammar Features: nouns and adjectives are constant parts of speech. All feminine nouns end in in. Verbs change tenses and have passive forms.
Examples:
“In futur, I scriptrai evos semper in dit glot. I pregate evos responden ad me in dit self glot"- “In the future, I will always write to you in this language. And I ask you to answer me in the same way.”
"Habe or vin?"- “Do they have wine?”
Volapyuk
Volapük was invented in Germany by Catholic priest Johann Martin Schleyer in 1879. The creator of Volapuk believed that this language was suggested to him by God, who came to him during insomnia. The name comes from the English words world (vol in Volapuk) and speak (pük), and the language itself was based on Latin. Unlike the universalglot that preceded it, Volapuk was popular for quite a long time: more than 25 magazines were published on it and about 300 textbooks on its study were written. There is even a Wikipedia in Volapuk. However, apart from her, practically no one uses this language in the 21st century, but the word “Volapiuk” itself has entered the lexicon of some European languages as a synonym for something meaningless and unnatural.
Alphabet: Volapük has three alphabets: the main alphabet, which is close to Latin and consists of 27 characters, the phonetic alphabet, consisting of 64 letters, and the Latin extended alphabet with additional letters included (umlauts), which is used to convey proper names. Three alphabets, which in theory were designed to help read and write, in fact only made understanding more difficult, since most words could be written in several ways (For example, “London” - London or).
Pronunciation: Volapuk phonetics is elementary: there are no complex combinations of vowels and the sound r, which makes pronunciation easier for children and peoples who do not use the sound r in speech. The stress always falls on the last syllable.
Vocabulary: Many roots of words in Volapuk are borrowed from French and English, but the vocabulary of the language is independent and lacks a close semantic connection with living languages. Volapük words are often formed according to the principle of “stringing roots.” For example, the word klonalitakip (chandelier) consists of three components: klon (crown), lit (light) and kip (keep). Making fun of the word formation process in Volapük, people who spoke the language deliberately made up long words, like klonalitakipafablüdacifalöpasekretan (secretary of the chandelier factory directorate).
Grammar Features: Nouns can be inflected in four cases. Verbs are formed by attaching a pronoun to the root of the corresponding noun. For example, the pronoun ob (s) - “I (we)”, when added to the root löf (“love”), forms the verb löfob (“love”).
Example:
“Binos prinsip sagatik, kel sagon, das stud nemödik a del binos gudikum, ka stud mödik süpo”“It is wisely said that it is better to study a little every day than to study a lot in one day.”
Esperanto
The most popular of artificial languages was created in 1887 by Warsaw linguist and oculist Lazar Markovich Zamenhof. The main provisions of the language were collected in the Esperanto textbook Lingvo internacia. Antaŭparolo kaj plena lernolibro (“International language. Preface and complete textbook”). Zamenhof published a textbook under the pseudonym “Doctor Esperanto” (which means “Hopeful” in the language he created), which gave the name to the language.
The idea to create an international language came to Zamenhof due to the fact that in Bialystok, his hometown, people of different nationalities lived and they felt separated, not having a common language that everyone could understand. Esperanto was enthusiastically received by the public and developed actively for a long time: the Esperanto Academy appeared, and in 1905 the first World Congress dedicated to the new language took place. Esperanto has several "child" languages, such as Ido (which translates to "descendant" from Esperanto) and Novial.
Esperanto is still spoken by about 100,000 people around the world. Several radio stations broadcast in this language (including Vatican Radio), some musical groups sing and films are made. There is also a Google search in Esperanto.
Alphabet: was created on the basis of Latin and consists of 28 letters. There are letters with diacritics.
Pronunciation: Pronunciation of most sounds is easy without special preparation; individual sounds are pronounced in the Russian and Polish manner. The stress in all words falls on the penultimate syllable.
Vocabulary: The roots of words are mainly borrowed from Romance and Germanic languages (French, German, English), sometimes Slavic borrowings are found.
Grammar Features: In the first textbook published by Zamenhof, all the grammatical rules of Esperanto fit into 16 points. Each part of speech has its own ending: nouns end in o, adjectives end in a, verbs end in i, adverbs end in e. Verbs change according to tenses: each tense has its own ending (the past has is, the present has as, the future has os). Nouns change in only two cases - nominative and accusative, the remaining cases are expressed using prepositions. Plural numbers are indicated by ending j. There is no gender category in Esperanto.
Example:
Ĉu vi estas libera ĉi-vespere?-Are you free this evening?
Linkos
Linkos is a “space language” created by Utrecht University mathematics professor Hans Freudenthal to interact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Linkos, unlike most artificial languages, is not a posteriori, but a priori (that is, it is based on no existing languages). Due to the fact that this language is intended for communication with alien intelligent beings, it is as simple and unambiguous as possible. It is based on the idea of the universality of mathematics. Freudenthal has developed a series of lessons on Linkos, which in the shortest possible time help to master the main categories of the language: numbers, the concepts of “more”, “less”, “equal”, “true”, “false”, etc.
Alphabet and pronunciation: There is no alphabet. Words do not need voicing. They are designed to be read-only or transmitted in code form.
Vocabulary: Any word can be encoded if it can be explained mathematically. Since there are few such words, linkos mainly operates with categorical concepts.
Example:
Ha Inq Hb ?x 2x=5- Ha says Hb: what is x if 2x=5?
Loglan
Loglan is a logical language, a language developed by Dr. James Cook Brown as an experimental language to test the Sapphire-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity (language determines thinking and the way of knowing reality). The first book on its study, Loglan 1: A Logical Language, was published in 1975. The language is completely logical, easy to learn, and free of the inaccuracies of natural languages. The first students of Loglan were observed as linguistic scientists tried to understand how language affects thinking. It was also planned to make Loglan a language for communicating with artificial intelligence. In 1987, the Loglan Institute split, and at the same time the language split into Loglan and Lojban. Now there are several hundred people left in the world who can understand Loglan.
Alphabet: Latin alphabet without modifications with four diphthongs.
Pronunciation: similar to Latin.
Vocabulary: all words are created specifically for this language. There are almost no borrowed roots. All capital consonants end in “ai” (Bai, Cai, Dai), all lowercase consonants end in “ei” (bei, cei, dei), capital vowels end in “-ma” (Ama, Ema, Ima), all lowercase vowels end in "fi" (afi, efi, ifi)
Grammar Features: Loglan has only three parts of speech: names, words and predicates. Names are written with a capital letter and ending with a consonant. Predicates act as almost all parts of speech, do not change and are constructed according to a certain pattern (they must have a specific number of vowels and consonants). Words help create all connections between words (both grammatical, punctuation and semantic). So, in Loglan there is no majority of punctuation marks: instead of them, little words are used - kie and kiu (instead of parentheses), li and lu (instead of quotation marks). Words are also used to convey emotional coloring to the text: they can express confidence, joy, desire, etc.
Examples:
Ice mi tsodi lo puntu- I hate pain.
Le bukcu ga he treci?- Interesting book?
Bei mutce treci.- The book is very interesting
Solresol
Solresol is an artificial language invented by the Frenchman Jean François Sudre in 1817, based on the name of the seven notes of the diatonic scale. To study it, it is not necessary to read musical notation. The language project was recognized by the Paris Academy of Sciences and received the approval of Victor Hugo, Alphonse Lamartine, Humboldt - however, interest in Solresol was, although vigorous, short-lived. A separate advantage of the language is that words and sentences in the Solresol language can be written both in letters (and vowels can be omitted for brevity), and in musical notation, the first seven numbers, the first seven letters of the alphabet, the colors of the rainbow and shorthand signs.
Alphabet: Instead of the alphabet, solresol uses the names of the seven notes: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si.
Pronunciation: You can pronounce words by reading their names out loud or singing the corresponding notes.
Vocabulary: All solresol words consist of the names of notes. There are about 3,000 words in the language (one-syllable, two-syllable, three-syllable and four-syllable). Words are combined according to semantic categories: all that begin with “sol” refer to sciences and art (soldoremi - theater, sollasila - mathematics), those starting with “solsol” - to medicine and anatomy (solsoldomi - nerve), words related to time categories begin with “dor”: (doredo - hour, dorefa - week, dorela - year). Antonyms are formed by inverting the word: domire - unlimited, remido - limited. There are no synonyms in Solresol.
Grammar Features: Parts of speech in Solresol are determined by stress. In a noun it falls on the first syllable: milarefa - criticism, in an adjective on the penultimate one: milarefA - critical, the verb is not stressed, and in an adverb the stress falls on the last syllable. Nouns officially have three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), but actually two: feminine and non-feminine. In feminine words in oral speech, the last vowel sound is highlighted - it is either emphasized or a small horizontal line is placed above it.
Examples:
Miremi Resisolsi- beloved friend
I love you- dore milyasi domi
Ithkuil
Ithkuil is a language created in 1987 by American linguist John Quijada and, in his own words, “was in no way intended to function as a natural language.” Linguists call Ithkuil a superlanguage that can speed up thought processes: by pronouncing a minimum number of sounds, you can convey the maximum amount of information, since words in Ithkuil are built on the principle of “semantic compression” and are designed to increase the efficiency of communication.
Alphabet: The alphabet is based on Latin using diacritics (45 consonants and 13 vowels), but words are written using ikhtail - an archetypal script that changes depending on the morphological role of the symbol in the word. In writing, there are many symbols with double meaning. Also, the text can be written both from left to right and from right to left. Ideally, the text on the ifkuil should be read as a “vertical snake”, starting from the upper left corner.
Pronunciation: Difficult to pronounce language with complex phonology. Most of the letters individually are similar to Latin ones and are pronounced in the usual way, but in combination with others they turn out to be difficult to pronounce.
Grammar Features: The language's creator himself says that the grammar is constructed according to "a matrix of grammatical concepts and structures designed for compactness, cross-functionality, and reusability." There are no rules in language as such, but there are certain principles for the compatibility of morphemes.
Vocabulary: There are about 3600 semantic roots in Ithkuil. Word formation occurs according to the principles of semantic similarity and grouping. New words are formed thanks to a huge number of morphemes (suffixes, prefixes, interfixes, grammatical categories).
Examples:
elaţ eqëiţôrf eoļļacôbé- "Brevity is the soul of wit"
Literal translation: (prototypical) utterance (produced by a prototypical) talented person - compact (i.e. - metaphorically reminiscent of the idea of tightly coupled matter).
xwaléix oípřai“lîň olfái”lobîň- "Deep blue Sea". Literal translation: “A large body of still water, considered as having new properties, which manifests itself in a “blue manner” and at the same time has a more than normal level of depth.”
Quenya and other Elvish languages
Elvish languages are dialects invented by the writer and linguist J.R.R. Tolkien in 1910–1920. The elves in his works communicate in these languages. There are many elven languages: Quenderin, Quenya, Eldarin, Avarin, Sindarin, Ilkorin, Lemberin, Nandorin, Telerin, etc. Their multiplicity is due to the numerous “divisions” of the elven people due to frequent wars and migrations. Each Elvish language has both an external history (that is, the story of its creation by Tolkien) and an internal history (the story of its origins in the Elvish world). Elvish languages are popular among fans of Tolkien's work, with several magazines published in Quenya and Sindarin (the two most popular languages).
Alphabet: The Quenya alphabet has 22 consonants and 5 vowels. There are two writing systems for writing words in Elvish languages: Tengwar and Kirt (similar to runic writing). Latin transliteration is also used.
Pronunciation: The pronunciation and stress system of Quenya is similar to Latin.
Grammar Features: Nouns in Quenya are inflected in 9 cases, with one of the cases called "Elfinitive". Verbs change according to tenses (present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future and future perfect). Numbers are interesting - there is not only singular and plural, but also dual and multiplex (for countless objects). To form names, suffixes are used that have certain meanings, for example -wen - “maiden”, -(i)on - “son”, -tar - “ruler, king”.
Vocabulary: Quenya is based on Finnish, Latin and Greek. The prototype for Sindarin was the Welsh language. Most of the words in one way or another relate to the life of elven settlements, to military operations, to magic and to the everyday life of elves.
Example (Quenya):
Harië malta úva carë nér anwavë alya- It’s not gold that makes a person truly rich
Klingon language
Klingon is a language developed in the 1980s specifically for the alien race of the Star Trek series by linguist Marc Okrand. It is thought out from start to finish: it has its own grammar, stable syntax, writing, and is also actively supported by the Klingon Language Institute, which publishes books and magazines in Klington (including the works of Shakespeare and the Bible translated into Klingon). There is not only a Klingon Wikipedia and a Klingon Google search engine, but also rock bands that sing only in Klingon. In The Hague in 2010, the opera “’u’” was released in this fictitious dialect (“’u’” means “Universe”).
Pronunciation and alphabet: A phonetically complex language that uses glottal stops to create an alien-sounding effect. Several writing systems have been developed that have features of Tibetan writing with an abundance of sharp corners in the outline of characters. The Latin alphabet is also used.
Vocabulary: Formed on the basis of Sanskrit and North American Indian languages. The syntax is mainly devoted to space and conquest, war, weapons and numerous variations of curses (in Klingon culture, cursing is a kind of art). The language has a lot of movie buzz built into it: the word for couple in Klingon is chang'eng (a reference to the twins Chang and Eng).
Grammar Features: Klingon uses affixes to change the meaning of a word. A variety of suffixes are used to convey animateness and inanimateness, plurality, gender and other distinctive features of objects. Verbs also have special suffixes that characterize the action. The word order can be either direct or reverse. Speed in information transfer is a decisive factor.
Examples:
tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a"?- Do you speak Klingon?
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam.- Today is a good day to die.
taH pagh taHbe: DaH mu’tlheghvam vIqelnIS- To be or not to be: that is the question
Na"vi
Na'vi is a language developed between 2005 and 2009 by linguist Paul Frommer for James Cameron's film Avatar. Na'vi is spoken by the blue-skinned inhabitants of the planet Pandora. From their language the word na"vi is translated as "people".
Pronunciation and vocabulary: Papuan, Australian and Polynesian languages were used as prototypes for Na'vi. In total, the language has about 1000 words. The vocabulary is mainly everyday.
Grammar Features: There is no concept of gender in Na'Vi; words denoting men or women can be distinguished using the suffixes an - masculine and e - feminine. The division into “he” and “she” is also optional. Numbers are indicated not by endings, but by prefixes. Adjectives are not declined. Verbs change according to tenses (and it is not the endings of the verbs that change, but infixes are added), but not according to persons. Due to the fact that the Na'vi have four fingers on their hands, they use the octal number system. The order of words in a sentence is free.
Examples:
Oeyä tukrul txe’lanit tivakuk- Let my spear pierce the heart
Kaltxì. Ngaru lu fpom srak?- "Hi how are you doing?" (literally: “Hi, are you okay?”)
Tsun oe ngahu nìNa“vi pivängkxo a fì”u oeru prrte" lu. - “I can communicate with you in Na’vi, and that’s nice for me.”
Fìskxawngìri tsap’alute sengi oe. - “I'm sorry about that idiot.”
People have had this problem since ancient times"language barrier". They solved it in different ways: for example, they learned other languages or chose one language for international communication (in the Middle Ages, the language of scientists around the world was Latin, but now most countries will understand English). Pidgins were also born - peculiar “hybrids” of two languages. And starting from the 17th century, scientists began to think about creating a separate language that would be easier to learn. Indeed, in natural languages there are many exceptions and borrowings, and their structure is determined by historical development, as a result of which it can be very difficult to trace the logic, for example, of the formation of grammatical forms or spelling. Artificial languages are often called planned languages because the word “artificial” can have negative associations.
Most famous and the most common of them is Esperanto, created by Ludwik Zamenhof in 1887. “Esperanto” - “hoping” - is Zamenhof’s pseudonym, but later this name was adopted by the language he created.
Zamenhof was born in Bialystok, in the Russian Empire. Jews, Poles, Germans and Belarusians lived in the city, and relations between representatives of these peoples were very tense. Ludwik Zamenhof believed that the cause of interethnic hostility lies in misunderstanding, and even in high school he made attempts, based on the European languages he studied, to develop a “common” language, which would be neutral - non-ethnic. The structure of Esperanto was created quite simple for ease of learning and memorizing the language. The roots of the words were borrowed from European and Slavic languages, as well as from Latin and ancient Greek. There are many organizations whose activities are dedicated to the dissemination of Esperanto; books and magazines are published in this language, there are broadcast channels on the Internet, and songs are created. There are also versions of many common programs for this language, such as the OpenOffice.org office application and the Mozilla Firefox browser. The Google search engine also has a version in Esperanto. The language is supported by UNESCO.
Besides Esperanto, there are many other man-made languages, some widely known and some less common. Many of them were created with the same goal - to develop the most convenient means for international communication: Ido, Interlingua, Volapuk and others. Some other artificial languages, such as Loglan, were created for research purposes. And languages such as Na'vi, Klingon and Sindarin were developed so that characters in books and films could speak them.
What is the difference from natural languages?
Unlike natural languages, developed throughout the history of mankind, separated over time from any parent language and died, artificial languages are created by people in a relatively short time. They can be created based on the elements and structure of existing natural languages or "constructed" entirely. Authors of artificial languages disagree on which strategy best meets their goals - neutrality, ease of learning, ease of use. However, many believe that the creation of artificial languages is pointless, since they will never spread enough to serve as a universal language. Even the Esperanto language is now known to few, and English is most often used for international negotiations. The study of artificial languages is complicated by many factors: there are no native speakers, the structure can change periodically, and as a result of disagreements between theorists, an artificial language can be divided into two variants - for example, Lojban was separated from the Loglan language, Ido was separated from Esperanto. However, supporters of artificial languages still believe that in the conditions of modern globalization, a language is needed that could be used by everyone, but at the same time not associated with any particular country or culture, and continue linguistic research and experiments.
Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Kurgan State Agricultural Academy named after. T. S. Maltseva"
Faculty: Economics
Department: Russian language and culture of speech
Abstract on Russian language and speech culture
On the topic of: Artificial languages.
- Completed by: 1st year student, 2nd group
- accounting department
- accounting analysis and audit
- Zhilyakova Natalya
- Checked by: Nina Efimovna Ukraintseva
Content
Introduction
- The concept of artificial language.
Types of artificial languages.
- Volapyuk.
- Esperanto.
Loglan.
Toki Pona.
Quenya.
Klingon language.
- Conclusion.
- List of used literature.
Human language is a system of auditory and visual symbols that people use to communicate and express their thoughts and feelings. Most of us deal mainly with natural languages, which arose independently from living human communication. However, there are also artificial human languages created by people themselves, primarily for communication between representatives of different nationalities, as well as for literary or cinematic science fiction works.
The need for language has always existed. We can say that its embryo was a consequence of the fact that people realized, on the one hand, multilingualism, and on the other hand, the unity of the human race and the need for mutual communication.
The purpose of my work is to convey the concept of “artificial languages” and show their history of origin.
1.The concept of artificial language
Artificial languages? - special languages, which, unlike natural ones, are designed purposefully. There are already more than a thousand such languages, and more and more are constantly being created.
The idea of creating a new language of international communication arose in the 17th-18th centuries as a result of the gradual decrease in the international role of Latin. Initially, these were predominantly projects of a rational language, freed from the logical errors of living languages and based on the logical classification of concepts. Later, projects based on models and materials from living languages appear. The first such project was the universalglot, published in 1868 in Paris by Jean Pirro. Pirro's project, which anticipated many details of later projects, went unnoticed by the public.
2. Types of artificial languages
The following types of artificial languages are distinguished:
Programming languages and computer languages are languages for automatic information processing using a computer.
Information languages are languages used in various information processing systems.
Formalized languages of science are languages intended for symbolic recording of scientific facts and theories of mathematics, logic, chemistry and other sciences.
Languages of non-existent peoples created for fictional or entertainment purposes. The most famous are: the Elvish language, invented by J. Tolkien, and the Klingon language, invented by Marc Okrand.
International auxiliary languages are languages created from elements of natural languages and offered as an auxiliary means of international communication.
According to the purpose of creation, artificial languages can be divided into the following groups:
Philosophical and logical languages are languages that have a clear logical structure of word formation and syntax: Lojban, Toki Pona, Ifkuil, Ilaksh.
Auxiliary languages - intended for practical communication: Esperanto, Interlingua, Slovio, Slovyanski.
Artistic or aesthetic languages - created for creative and aesthetic pleasure: Quenya.
According to their structure, artificial language projects can be divided into the following groups:
A priori languages - based on logical or empirical classifications of concepts: loglan, lojban, rho, solresol, ifkuil, ilaksh.
A posteriori languages - languages built primarily on the basis of international vocabulary: Interlingua, Occidental
Mixed languages - words and word formation are partly borrowed from non-artificial languages, partly created on the basis of artificially invented words and word-formation elements: Volapuk, Ido, Esperanto, Neo.
Part of an alphabetical list of artificial languages:
Adyuvanto, Afrihili, Basic English, "Divine Language", Venedyk, Westron, Volapyuk, Glossa, Zlengo, Ido, Interglosa, Interlingua, Ifkuil, Quenya, Klingon Language, Cosmos, Kotawa, Lango, Latino-sine-flexione, Linkos, Loglan, Lojban, Lokos, Na'Vi, Neutral, Novial, Neo, Occidental, OMO, Palava-kani, Ro, Romanid, Romanitso, Sevorian, Simlish, Sindarin, Slovio, Slovyanski, Modern Indo-European, Solresol, Sonna, Sunilinus, Talos language, Toki Pona, Unitario, Uropi, Chengli, Edo, Eljundi, Esperantido, Esperanto, Brithenig, Dastmen, D"ni, Folkspraak, Hymmnos, Langua catolica, Lingwa de Planeta, Pasilingua, S-lingva, and many others.
The most famous of them are:
- Volapuk
- Esperanto
- loglan
- currents on
- Quenya
- Klingon language
2.1. Volapyuk
One of the first languages was Volapuk, created in 1880 by the German linguist I. Schleyer.
The Volapuk alphabet is based on Latin and consists of 27 characters. This language is distinguished by very simple phonetics, which should have made it easier to learn and pronounce for children and peoples whose language does not have complex combinations of consonants. The roots of most words in Volapük are borrowed from English and French, but modified to fit the rules of the new language. Volapük has 4 cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative; the stress always falls on the last syllable. The disadvantages of this language include a complex system of formation of verbs and various verb forms.
Although the unusual sound and spelling of words in Volapuk caused ridicule in the press, and the word “Volapiuk” itself became synonymous with “gibberish,” the language quickly gained popularity. In 1880, the first textbook in German was created, and two years later newspapers were published in Volapük. By 1889, 25 magazines in Volapuk were published all over the world and 316 textbooks were written in 25 languages, and the number of clubs for lovers of this language almost reached three hundred. However, gradually interest in this language began to fade away, and this process was especially strongly influenced by internal conflicts in the Volapük Academy and the emergence of a new, simpler and more elegant planned language - Esperanto.
It is believed that there are currently only about 20-30 people in the world who own Volapük.
2.2. Esperanto
Esperanto is the most famous and widespread of the artificially created languages. However, the more correct term is not “artificial”, but “planned”, that is, created specifically for international communication.
This language was constructed by the Warsaw physician and linguist Lazar (Ludwig) Markovich Zamenhof in 1887. He called his creation Internacia (international). The word "Esperanto" was originally the pseudonym under which Zamenhof published his works. Translated from the new language, it meant “hopeful.”
Esperanto is based on international words borrowed from Latin and Greek, and 16 grammatical rules with no exceptions. This language has no grammatical gender, it has only two cases - nominative and accusative, and the meanings of the rest are conveyed using prepositions. The alphabet is based on Latin, and all parts of speech have fixed endings: -o for nouns, -a for adjectives, -i for infinitive verbs, -e for derived adverbs.
All this makes Esperanto such a simple language that an untrained person can become fluent enough to speak it in a few months of regular practice. In order to learn any of the natural languages at the same level, it takes at least several years.
Currently, Esperanto is actively used, according to various estimates, from several tens of thousands to several million people. It is believed that for 500-1000 people this language is their native language, that is, studied from the moment of birth. Usually these are children from marriages where the parents belong to different nations and use Esperanto for intra-family communication.
Esperanto has descendant languages that do not have a number of shortcomings that exist in Esperanto. The most famous among these languages are Esperantido and Novial. However, none of them will become as widespread as Esperanto.
2.3. Loglan
Loglan was developed specifically for linguistic research. It got its name from the English phrase “logical language”, which means “logical language”. Dr James Cook Brown began work on the new language in 1955, and the first paper on Loglan was published in 1960. The first meeting of people interested in Brown's brainchild took place in 1972; and three years later Brown's book, Loglan 1: A Logical Language, was published.
Brown's main goal was to create a language free from the contradictions and inaccuracies inherent in natural languages. He envisioned that Loglan could be used to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity, according to which the structure of language determines thinking and the way we experience reality, so much so that people who speak different languages perceive the world differently and think differently.
The Loglan alphabet is based on the Latin script and consists of 28 letters. This language has only three parts of speech:
- nouns (names and titles) denoting specific individual objects;
- predicates that play the role of most parts of speech and convey the meaning of statements;
- words (English “little words”, literally “little words”) - pronouns, numerals and operators that express the emotions of the speaker and provide logical, grammatical, numerical and punctuation connections. There is no punctuation in the usual sense of the word in Loglan.
In 1965, Loglan was mentioned in R. Heinlein's story “The Moon Falls Hard” as a language used by a computer. The idea of making Loglan a human language understandable by a computer gained popularity, and in 1977-1982 work was done to finally rid it of contradictions and inaccuracies. As a result, after minor changes, Loglan became the world's first language with a grammar without logical conflicts.
In 1986, a split occurred among the Loglanists, which resulted in the creation of another artificial language - Lojban. Currently, interest in Loglan has noticeably decreased, but online communities still discuss language problems, and the Loglan Institute sends out its educational materials to everyone who is interested in the new language. According to various sources, there are from several tens to several thousand people in the world who are able to understand texts in Loglan.
2.4. Toki Pona
Toki pona is a language created by Canadian linguist Sonya Helen Kisa and has become perhaps the simplest of artificial languages. The phrase “toki pona” can be translated as “good language” or “kind language.” It is believed that its creation was influenced by the Chinese teachings of Taoism and the works of primitivist philosophers. The first information about this language appeared in 2001.
etc.................
It would seem that English today is the language of world communication, why is anything else needed? But linguists don't think so. The first known artificial language appeared in the world at the end of the 19th century, it was called Volapuk. In 1880, the first Volapuk language textbook was published. True, Volapuk did not take a strong position and disappeared simultaneously with the death of its creator. After this, many new artificial languages appeared in the world. Some of them are popular, for example, Esperanto, and some are spoken and written only by their creator (it would be more correct to call such artificial languages “linguistic projects”).
Moreover, there are even fictitious artificial languages, the creators of which came up with not only the name of the language and the people who use this language, but also the grammar and dictionary. The most famous and prolific creator of fictional artificial languages is Tolkien (yes, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ring). He invented more than a dozen Elvish languages, created a logical structure for their origin and development, distribution, and even thought out the grammar and lexical structure of each of the languages (with varying degrees of detail).
Tolkien, as a professional linguist, specialized in ancient Germanic languages. This is what helped him in creating his famous Elvish languages. In his books, Tolkien used the languages he created for names and titles, even writing poems and songs in them. So much is known about the language “Quenya” invented by Tolkien that you can even learn to speak it; there is a Quenya textbook. Another thing is that you can only speak Quenya with ardent Tolkien fans; in real life the language is unlikely to be useful.
Let us now recall some artificial languages (otherwise called “planned languages”) that are used in the world.
Constructed languages: Esperanto
Esperanto is the most famous and most widespread artificial language in the world. Like Volapuk, it appeared at the end of the 19th century, but this language was much more fortunate. Its creator is doctor and linguist Lazar Markovich Zamenhof. Today, from 100 thousand to several million people communicate in Esperanto, there are even people for whom the language is native (usually children from international marriages in which Esperanto is the language of family communication). Unfortunately, accurate statistics for artificial languages are not kept.
Constructed language Ido (Edo)
Ido is a kind of descendant of Esperanto. It was created by the French Esperantist Louis de Beaufront, the French mathematician Louis Couture and the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen. Ido was proposed as an improved version of Esperanto. It is estimated that up to 5,000 people speak Ido today. At the time of its creation, about 10% of Esperantists switched to it, but the Ido language did not gain worldwide popularity.
Constructed languages: Slovenian
We, Russian people, cannot help but mention such an interesting project as Slovyanski. This is a new language, it appeared in 2006 as the language for international communication of the Slavs. The creators of the language set themselves the task: the language should be understandable without translation to the majority of speakers of Slavic languages (and this group includes not only us, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. There are also Czechs, Croats, Bulgarians, and other peoples).
There are other planned, or artificial, languages, not so well known and popular: Interlingua (appeared in the mid-20th century), Tokipona (one of the simplest artificial languages, several hundred users, appeared in 2001), Quenya (the most popular and developed Elvish language, the number of people who know it to some extent reaches several thousand), Klingon language (the language of one of the alien races in the Star Trek series, a magazine is published in it, there are songs in Klingon and even Klingon Google!) . In fact, it is difficult to determine the number of artificial languages: there are only about forty more or less known artificial languages. And here is a link to a long list of artificial languages:
To many, the very phrase “artificial language” may seem extremely strange. Why “artificial”? If there is an “artificial language,” then what is a “natural language”? And finally, the most important thing: why create another new language when there are already a huge number of living, dying and ancient languages in the world?
An artificial language, unlike a natural one, is not the fruit of human communication that arose as a result of complex cultural, social and historical processes, but was created by man as a means of communication with new characteristics and capabilities. The question arises: is he not a mechanical creation of the human mind, is he alive, does he have a soul? If we turn to languages created for literary or cinematic works (for example, the language of the Quenya elves, invented by Professor J. Tolkien, or the language of the Klingon empire from the Star Trek series), then in this case the reasons for their appearance are clear. The same applies to computer languages. However, most often people try to create artificial languages as a means of communication between representatives of different nationalities, for political and cultural reasons.
For example, it is known that all modern Slavic languages are related to each other, like all modern Slavic peoples. The idea of their unification has been in the air since ancient times. The complex grammar of Old Church Slavonic could not make it the language of interethnic communication of the Slavs, and it seemed almost impossible to choose any particular Slavic language. Back in 1661 he was nominated project of the pan-Slavic language Kryzhanich, who laid the foundations of Pan-Slavism. It was followed by other ideas for a common language for the Slavs. And in the 19th century, the common Slavic language, created by the Croatian educator Koradzic, became widespread.
The mathematician Rene Descartes, the enlightener John Amos Comenius, and the utopian Thomas More were all interested in projects to create a universal language. They were all driven by the attractive idea of breaking down the language barrier. However, most artificially created languages have remained a hobby for a very narrow circle of enthusiasts.
The first language to achieve more or less noticeable success is considered Volapuk, invented by the German priest Schleir. It featured very simple phonetics and was built on the basis of the Latin alphabet. The language had a complex system of verb formation and 4 cases. Despite this, he quickly gained popularity. In the 1880s, Volapuk even published newspapers and magazines, there were clubs for its lovers, and textbooks were published.
But soon the palm passed to another much easier to learn language - Esperanto. Warsaw ophthalmologist Lazar (or, in the German manner, Ludwig) Zamenhof published his works for some time under the pseudonym “Doctor Esperanto” (hopeful). The works were devoted precisely to the creation of a new language. He himself called his creation “internacia” (international). The language was so simple and logical that it immediately aroused the interest of the public: 16 simple grammatical rules, no exceptions, words borrowed from Greek and Latin - all this made the language very easy to learn. Esperanto remains the most popular artificial language to this day. It is interesting to note that nowadays there are also speakers of Esperanto. One of them is George Soros, whose parents once met at an Esperantist congress. The famous financier is originally bilingual (his first native language is Hungarian) and is a rare example of how an artificial language can become native.
Nowadays there are a great variety of artificial languages: these and lolgan, designed specifically for linguistic research, and created by a Canadian philologist Toki Pona language, And Edo(reformed Esperanto), and Slovio(a Pan-Slavic language developed by Mark Gutsko in 2001). As a rule, all artificial languages are very simple, which often evokes associations with the Newspeak described by Orwell in the novel “1984,” a language that was originally constructed as a political project. That is why the attitude towards them is often contradictory: why learn a language in which great literature has not been written, in which no one speaks except a few amateurs? And finally, why learn an artificial language when there are international natural languages (English, French)?
Regardless of the reason for the creation of a particular artificial language, it is impossible for it to equivalently replace a natural language. It is deprived of a cultural and historical basis, its phonetics will always be conditional (there are examples when Esperantists from different countries had difficulty understanding each other due to the huge difference in the pronunciation of certain words), it does not have a sufficient number of speakers to be able to “ plunge" into their environment. Artificial languages, as a rule, are taught by fans of certain works of art in which these languages are used, programmers, mathematicians, linguists, or simply interested people. They can be considered as an instrument of interethnic communication, but only in a narrow circle of amateurs. Be that as it may, the idea of creating a universal language is still alive and well.
Kurkina AnaTheodora