The following list of notableconstructed languages is divided intoauxiliary,ritual,engineered, andartistic (including fictional)languages, and their respective subgenres. All entries on this list have further information on separate Wikipedia articles.
International auxiliary languages (IAL) are languages constructed to provide easy, fast, and/or improved 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 theirsolfege 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 ownnative speakers (approximately 1,000).[1] |
| Mundolinco | 1888 | J. Braakman | The firstEsperantido. | |
| 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 | la-peano | 1903 | Giuseppe Peano | "Latin without inflection", it replaced Idiom Neutral in 1908. |
| Ro | 1904 | Rev.Edward Powell Foster | Ana priori language using categories of knowledge. | |
| Ido | io, ido | 1907 | A group of reformist Esperanto speakers | The most successfuloffspring of Esperanto. |
| Adjuvilo | 1910 | Claudius Colas | AnEsperantido some believe was created to cause dissent amongIdoists. | |
| Timerio | 1921 | Tiemer | A language where each concept is replaced with a number, intended to be used as a means forautomatic translation. | |
| Interlingue | ie, ile | 1922 | Edgar de Wahl | A sophisticated naturalistic IAL, also known as Occidental. |
| Novial | nov | 1928 | Otto Jespersen | Another sophisticated naturalistic IAL by a famous Danish linguist. |
| Sona | 1935 | Kenneth Searight | Agglutinative language with universal vocabulary. Its 360 radicals can be combined to form new words. | |
| Esperanto II | 1937 | René de Saussure | Last of linguist Saussure's manyEsperantidos. | |
| Mondial | 1940s | Dr. Helge Heimer | Naturalistic European language. | |
| Interglossa | igs | 1943 | Lancelot Hogben | It has a strong Greco-Latin vocabulary. |
| Interlingua | ia, ina | 1951 | International Auxiliary Language Association | A major effort to systematize theinternational 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. | |
| Lingua sistemfrater | 1957 | Pham Xuan Thai | Greco-Latin vocabulary with southeast Asian grammar. | |
| Neo | neu | 1961 | Arturo Alfandari | A very terseEsperantido. |
| Babm | 1962 | Rikichi Okamoto | Notable for using Latin letters as asyllabary. | |
| Unilingua (now Mirad) | 1966 (revised 1967 and 2022) | Noubar Agopoff | A priori ontological vocabulary. Every letter has semantic or functional meaning. | |
| Arcaicam Esperantom | eo-arkaika | 1969 | Manuel Halvelik | 'Archaic Esperanto', developed to produce an archaic effect inEsperanto literature. |
| Eurolengo | 1972 | Leslie Jones | Combines elements of English and Spanish. | |
| Glosa | 1975 | Ronald Clark and Wendy Ashby | An evolution of Interglossa. | |
| Kotava | avk | 1978 | Staren Fetcey | A sophisticateda 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? | Billy Ray Waldon | Esperanto grammar with significantCherokee vocabulary. | |
| Romániço | 1991 | Anonymous | Vocabulary is derived from commonRomance 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. |
| 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. |
Zonal auxiliary languages are languages created with the purpose of facilitating communication between speakers of a certain group of related languages. Unlike international auxiliary languages for global uses, they are intended to serve a limited linguistic or geographic area. Examples includePan-Slavic languages,Pan-Romance languages andPan-Germanic languages.
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruski jezik | 1666 | Juraj Križanić | The first known example of an artificially createdPan-Slavic language. | |
| Tutonish | 1901 | Elias Molee | The firstPan-Germanic language, later reformed under names likenu teutonish,alteutonik, etc. | |
| Romanid | 1956 | Zoltán Magyar | Azonal auxiliary language based on the Romance languages. | |
| Guosa | 1965 | Alexander Igbinéwéká | Azonal auxiliary language for West Africa derived primarily fromHausa,Yoruba, andIgbo. | |
| Afrihili | afh | 1970 | K. A. Kumi Attobrah | A pan-African language. |
| Runyakitara | early 1990s | A standardized language based on four closely related languages of westernUganda. | ||
| Palawa kani | 1992 | Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre | Based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the variousTasmanian languages once spoken by the eastern Aboriginal Tasmanians. | |
| Slovio | 1999 | Mark Hučko | A constructed language based on the Slavic languages and Esperanto grammar. | |
| Romance Neolatino | 2006 | Jordi Cassany Bates and others | APan-Romance language | |
| Slovianski | 2006 | Ondrej Rečnik, Gabriel Svoboda,Jan van Steenbergen, Igor Polyakov | A naturalistic language based on the Slavic languages. | |
| Neoslavonic | 2009 | Vojtěch Merunka | A modernized form ofOld Church Slavonic. | |
| Budinos | 2009 | Aleksey Andreyevitch Arzamazov | A zonal auxiliary language based on theFinno-Ugric languages. | |
| Interslavic | isv | 2011–2017 | Jan van Steenbergen,Vojtěch Merunka | APan-Slaviczonal auxiliary language, the result of the merger ofSlovianski andNeoslavonic. |
| Ortatürk / Öztürkçe | 1992, 2008 | Baxtiyar Kärimov, Shoahmad Mutalov | A Pan-Turkic zonal auxiliary language, with statistically calculated vocabulary. |
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 (Learning) English | 1959 | Voice of America | |
| Globish | 2004 | Jean-Paul Nerrière | |
| E-Prime | 1940s | D. David Bourland Jr. | Eliminates the verbto 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 use symbols or movements in place of the spoken word. Constructedsign languages also fall in this category.
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blissymbols | zbl | 1949 | Charles K. Bliss | Anideographic writing system, with its own grammar and syntax. |
| International Sign | ils | 1970s | Jasin Maloku | International auxiliary sign language. Also known as Gestuno. |
| Isotype | 1925–1934 | Otto Neurath et al. | Apictographic language. |
These are languages in actual religious use by their communities or congregations.
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iyaric | c. 1930s | Rastas | "Rasta Talk" "Dread Talk" Constructed in the Rastafari Movement to replace lost ancestral African languages. | |
| Eskayan | esy | c. 1920–1940 | Mariano Datahan | Grammatically based on theBoholano dialect ofCebuano. |
| Medefaidrin | dmf | 1930s | Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ church | Used by this Nigerian Christian church |
| Damin | unknown | theLardil people | Created by native speakers ofLardil; onlyclick language outside Africa. |
Engineered languages are devised to test a hypothesis or experiment with innovative linguistic features. They may fall into one or more of three categories:philosophical,experimental and logical.
| 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. | |
| Loglan | 1955 | James Cooke Brown | Created to test theSapir–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 | 1978–2023 | John Quijada | Complex language designed to express deeper meanings briefly and clearly. | |
| Láadan | ldn | 1982 | Suzette Haden Elgin | Atonal language oriented towards women; created to test if natural languages are biased towards men. |
| Lojban | jbo | 1987 | Logical Language Group | Logical andsyntactically unambiguous language; successor of Loglan. |
| Toki Pona | tok | 2001 | Sonja Lang | Minimalist language with 120–137+ words, with over 1600 speakers.[2][3] |
| Kēlen | 2009 | Sylvia Sotomayor | An alien language that attempts to eliminateverbs, which would violate a universal feature among natural human languages. | |
| Viossa | 2014 | Artificialpidgin language with no strict grammar or phonetic rules; accepted as correct as long as speakers can understand each other. |
| Name | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincos | 1960 | Hans Freudenthal | Designed to be understandable by any possible intelligentextraterrestrial life, for use in interstellar radio transmissions. |
| Attempto Controlled English | 1995 | University of Zurich | Acontrolled natural language that is also a knowledge representation language.[4] |
| Mänti | 2006 | Daniel Tammet | An invented language that uses some Finnic words and grammar. |
Tolkien's most prominent languages are:
| Language | ISO | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sindarin | sjn | anElvish language, largely inspired byWelsh. |
| Quenya | qya | an Elvish language, largely inspired byFinnish,Latin, andAncient Greek. |
| Khuzdul | aDwarvish language, largely inspired by theSemitic languages. |
| Name | Work | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Klingon | Star Trek | 1979–present | Marc Okrand | Language of the Klingon alien species. |
| Tchude language | Pathfinder | 1987 | Esben Kr. Aamot[5] | Language of the villain tribe of Tchudes |
| Atlantean | Atlantis: The Lost Empire | 2001 | Marc Okrand | Language of the citizens of the mythical city ofAtlantis. |
| Ku | The Interpreter | 2005 | Said el-Gheithy | Fictional African language. |
| Naʼvi | Avatar | 2009 | Paul Frommer | Spoken by theNaʼvi. |
| Barsoomian | John Carter | 2012 | Paul Frommer,Edgar Rice Burroughs | Language of theMartians. |
| Kiliki | Baahubali | 2015 | Madhan Karky | Spoken by theKalakeyas.[6] |
| Beama | Alpha | 2016 | Christine Schreyer | Upper Paleolithic, 20ka |
| Name | Work | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tsolyani | Empire of the Petal Throne | 1940s | M. A. R. Barker | Language of the world ofTékumel as described in thisroleplaying game. |
| Gargish | Ultima series | 1981–2013 | Language of the gargoyle race. | |
| D'ni | Myst series | 1993–2005 | Cyan Worlds | Language spoken by the subterraneanD'ni people. |
| Hymmnos | Ar Tonelico | 2006–2010 | Akira Tsuchiya | Language ofAr Ciel, used in dialogues and lyrics of the songs and as a decorative element.[7] |
| Wenja | Far Cry Primal | 2016 | Andrew Byrd, Brenna Byrd | Three dialects (Wenja, Udam, Izila) used in all dialogs and by NPCs. Engineered as an archaic version ofPIE.[8] |
| Name | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teonaht | 1962 | Sally Caves | Language of theTeonim, 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. |
| Name | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kobaïan | 1970s | Christian Vander | Used by French rock groupMagma. |
| Loxian | 2005 | Roma Ryan | Used onEnya's 2005 albumAmarantine and 2015 albumDark Sky Island. |
| Moss | 2009 | Jackson Moore | A language with a musical phonology, modeled on pidgins. |
| Name | Work | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vulcan | Star Trek: The Original Series | 1966–1969 | Further developed by fans as Golic Vulcan. | |
| Enchanta | Encantadia andEtheria television series | 2005 | Suzette Doctolero | Spoken by the denizens ofEncantadia, known as Encantado(s)/Encantada(s) orDiwata (fairies). |
| TheValyrian languages andDothraki | Game of Thrones | 2011–2019 | David J. Peterson | |
| Trigedasleng | The 100 | 2014–2020 | David J. Peterson | |
| Belter Creole | The Expanse | 2014 | Nick Farmer | Spoken by Belters, inhabitants of theasteroid belt andouter planets of theSolar System.[9] |
| Romulan | Star Trek: Picard | 2019 | Trent Pehrson |
| Name | Work | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Utopian | Utopia | 1516 | Thomas More,Pieter Gillis | Constructed language created for the residents of More's fictional nation of Utopia; one of the first attempts at a constructed language. |
| Zaum | 1913 | Velimir Khlebnikov,Aleksei Kruchonykh et al. | Poetic tongue elaborated by theseRussian Futurists as a "transrational" and "most universal" language "of songs, incantations, and curses." | |
| Syldavian | The Adventures of Tintin, mostly inKing Ottokar's Sceptre | 1938–39 | Hergé | FictionalWest Germanic language ofSyldavia, aBalkan kingdom. |
| 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. |
| Bordurian | The Adventures of Tintin, mostly inThe Calculus Affair | 1954–56 | Hergé | Language ofBorduria, a country bordering Syldavia. |
| Spocanian | 1962 | Rolandt Tweehuysen | Language of Spocania. | |
| Chakobsa | Dune | 1965 | Frank Herbert,David J. Peterson, Jessie Peterson | Spoken by theFremen. |
| Lapine | Watership Down | 1972 | Richard Adams | Spoken by rabbits. |
| Láadan (ldn) | Native Tongue and sequels | 1984 | Suzette Haden Elgin | Spoken bywomen. |
| Baronh | Seikai no Monshō (Crest of the Stars) and others | 1996 | Morioka Hiroyuki | Language of Abh in and others. |
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 forIll Bethisad, analternate history project.
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brithenig | bzt | 1996 | Andrew Smith | A Romance language that replaced nativeCeltic languages in Great Britain instead of the GermanicAnglo-Saxon. A scenario whereBritish Latin survived and developed further into a modern language. |
| Wenedyk (Venedic) | 2002 | Jan van Steenbergen | Polish as aRomance language. A language with Polish phonetics and orthography but with Romance instead of Slavic vocabulary. |
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lingua ignota | 12th century | Hildegard of Bingen | Latin-influenced mystical language. | |
| Balaibalan | zba | c. 14th to 16th century | Muhyî-i Gülşenî | Language with mostlya 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 eightmoods, including Sidis's own strongeable, and has abase twelve number system. | |
| Talossan | tzl | 1980 | R. Ben Madison | Used for theTalossa micronation |
There is a version of Wikipedia in each of the following nine constructed languages. Eight of these languages are IALs (international auxiliary languages), while Lojban is anengineered language. Until 2005, there were also versions of Wikipedia in the constructed languagesToki Pona andKlingon, but these have been deleted.[10]
| Name | ISO/Link | Origin | Users worldwide | Active editors | Articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Esperanto | eo | 1887 | 100,000 – 2,000,000 | 516 | 378,287 |
| Volapük | vo | 1880 | ? | 36 | 46,189 |
| Ido | io | 1907 | c. 1000 | 89 | 60,129 |
| Interlingua | ia | 1951 | c. 1000 | 50 | 30,150 |
| Kotava | avk | 1978 | ? | 25 | 29,899 |
| Interlingue | ie | 1922 | ? | 48 | 13,383 |
| Lingua Franca Nova | lfn | 1998 | ? | 35 | 4,498 |
| Novial | nov | 1928 | ? | 21 | 1,884 |
| Lojban | jbo | 1987 | ? | 22 | 1,348 |
| Láadan[a] | ldn | 1982 | ? | — | — |
| Interslavic[a] | isv | 2011–2017 | 7,000 – 20,000 | — | — |
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