The term conlang refers to artificial, invented or constructed languages. I created a language myself, during the late 1990ies, when I was 17. There must have been some unconscious reasons for that, but what I can say is that I just loved languages, cultures and wanted to mix them as much as I could. I had had contact with Esperanto but, honestly, I had no idea that "conlanging" was something more comon than I expected. Now, after investing in studying Psichoanalic Semiotics - The Clinic of Culture at PUC-SP, and focused on the theame of Language Creation and linguistic-cultural aspects that segregate humanity, I believe this phenomenum may have a lot to say. But let's start with this very short introduction.

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Although it seems a new subject it has been explored for a long time. The concept deserved the interest of the semioticist Umberto Eco, having relevance in his book "The search for the perfect language" whose approach is made in chronological order beginning in Greece and then in the Abrahamic mythology, mentioning no less than God transferring the language to Adam and then confusing the tongues in the narrative of  Babel Tower construction. 

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The author focuses on Europe, passing through moments in which the search for a linguistic solution to the dissatisfaction with aspects of natural languages ​​guided or became entangled with important philosophical movements that marked the history of humanity. In the last moments of the narrative, the constructed languages​​, such as Volapük and Esperanto, are mentioned.

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Eco also mentions the creation of hundreds of artificial language projects during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Based on the website of the Language Creation Society, of which I am a member, and social networking groups, it is possible to estimate that today this number reaches a few thousand with a wide variety of purposes.

 

David J. Peterson, a co-founder of the Language Creation Society and creator of several artificial languages, among them Dothraki and the Valyrian languages ​​spoken in the HBO serie The Game of Thrones. Author of the book "The art of language invention", he tells the phenomenon of language creation mentioning from the emotional aspects, characteristics and classifications of the languages ​​currently built and presents a guide with the structural items for language construction.

 

The built languages ​​often constitute a portal for alternative ways of thinking and cultures to the known reality. Words are created with different concepts, alphabets, phonetics and structures which, in themselves, consist of signs that translate different realities in relation to the existing one.

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According to Peterson, "in order to meet the heightened expectations of audiences everywhere, we have to raise the bar for languages created for any purpose. After all, if we don’t, we’ll hear about it". and he mentions the thought of J. R. R. Tolkien during the creation of the language with his own name: Tolkien. The idea of ​​a link between language and culture is strengthened even in the case of artificial languages, which may have different motivations, among which are those to facilitate communication between different peoples or at least philosophically encourage people to reinterpret cultural differences as is the case of Allamej.

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Artificial languages may have classifications as diverse as the sum of structural characteristics, purposes, and inspirations that creativity can achieve. With this in mind, the classification that follows is based on David J. Peterson (2015, p.18), since it is one of the most recent works among the specialists involved in the area and should therefore be broader. Not entering into these details, we can mention some:

 

• Dothraki: Language spoken by a nomadic people in the series Game of Thrones. Created by North American David J. Peterson in 2009.

 

• Esperanto: International auxiliary language created by the Polish Jew Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof in 1873. Built on the basis of Indo-European languages and three-quarters of the language comes from Latin, Germanic or Slavic languages.

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• Interlingua: International auxiliary language created in 1951 by the International Auxiliaru Language Association located in New York, U.S.A. The development was essentially carried out by the linguist of German origin, Alexander Gode. It is based broadly on the Latin lexicon.

 

• Klingon: Fictional language of the aliens of the cinematographic work Star Trek. Created by the North American Gene L. Coon around 1967.

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• Lojban: Language created for the purpose of respecting the principles of logic. Created by the North American James Cook Brown, in 1921.

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• Na’vi: Fictional language spoken by the extra-terrestrials of Pandora the cinematographic production "The avatar". Created by American Paul Frommer around 2005.

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• Valyrian: Fictional language created for the Game of Thrones series. It has a classical form and descending dialects similar to what occurs with Portuguese and French in relation to Latin. Created by North American David J. Peterson in 2009.

 

• Volapük: International auxiliary language created by the German priest Johann Martin Schleyer in 1879. Perhaps it was the first project of some international scope. It is mainly based on English with considerable changes in the structure of words.

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I've come across many other conlangs having very difersified features and objectives at the Facebook Conlang group. There may be even thousands of constructed languages nowadays. Each day it proves to be an amazing world to get acquainted with and even to be deeply studied. Menkind is usually passive in relation to language. Creating languages through which one can speak is a movement contrary to our passivity in relation to language and culture, and might represent at least a message for our species. I leave this site to anyone who wants to know a little more about the subject and the hybrid language that I have created as well as its message of union and respect for diversity.   

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Rodrigo Solano