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A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose. These purposes may include facilitating international communication, fictional worldbuilding, or experimentation in the fields of linguistics, cognitive science, and logic.

Constructed languages are generally divided into three main categories: auxiliary languages (designed to facilitate communication between people of different linguistic backgrounds), artistic languages (created for aesthetic enjoyment or fictional settings), and engineered languages (designed to test hypotheses about linguistics, logic, or philosophy).

The earliest recorded constructed language is the Lingua Ignota, created in the 12th century by the German abbess and mystic Hildegard of Bingen.^[1] In the 17th century, philosophers such as Francis Lodwick and John Wilkins attempted to create philosophical languages based on a logical classification of all human knowledge, most notably in Wilkins' An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1688).

The 19th century saw the rise of international auxiliary languages (auxlangs). The most famous and widely spoken of these is Esperanto, created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887.^[2] Other notable auxlangs from this period include Volapük, and later, Interlingua and Ido.

In the early 20th century, constructed languages began to be developed extensively for fictional worldbuilding. The most prominent early example is J. R. R. Tolkien, who created several languages for his Middle-earth legendarium, most notably Quenya and Sindarin. Tolkien, a professional philologist, emphasized that he created the mythology to provide a world for his languages, rather than the other way around.^[3]

The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen a surge in conlanging, driven by the rise of the Internet and popular media. Television shows such as Star Trek (Klingon by Marc Okrand), Game of Thrones (Dothraki and Valyrian by David J. Peterson), and films like Arrival have brought constructed languages into the mainstream. The establishment of the Language Creation Society (LCS) in 2007 has further professionalized the field, providing conlangers for major media productions.

Constructed languages are generally classified by their intended purpose:

An international auxiliary language is designed for communication between people who do not share a native language. The goal is typically to be easy to learn and politically neutral.

• Esperanto: The most widely spoken constructed language in the world, with an estimated 100,000 to 2,000,000 speakers.^[4]
• Interlingua: Developed by the International Auxiliary Language Association, it features vocabulary drawn directly from natural Romance and Germanic languages.
• Toki Pona: A minimalist language created by Sonja Lang in 2001, with only around 120–137 root words, designed to simplify thoughts and communication.

An artistic language is created for aesthetic pleasure, fictional worldbuilding, or role-playing.

• Quenya and Sindarin: Elvish languages created by J. R. R. Tolkien.
• Klingon (tlhIngan Hol): Created by Marc Okrand for the Star Trek franchise. It is one of the few conlangs with a substantial body of translated literature and a small number of fluent speakers.
• Dothraki and High Valyrian: Created by David J. Peterson for the Game of Thrones television series.

An engineered language is created to test a hypothesis about how languages work, to explore philosophical concepts, or to optimize human thought.

• Loglan and Lojban: Predicate languages designed to test the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis by eliminating syntactic ambiguity.
• Ithkuil: Created by John Quijada, designed to convey deeper levels of human cognition and categorization than natural languages, resulting in a highly complex and dense grammatical structure.

The process of creating a language, known as conlanging, typically involves several linguistic levels:

1. Phonology: Defining the inventory of sounds (phonemes) and the rules for how they can be combined (phonotactics).
2. Orthography: Developing a writing system (alphabet, abugida, abjad, or logographic) and a romanization scheme.
3. Morphology: Determining how words are formed, including the use of affixes, inflection, and agglutination.
4. Syntax: Establishing the rules for sentence structure, such as word order (e.g., Subject-Verb-Object) and the handling of grammatical cases.
5. Lexicon: Generating a vocabulary, often using systematic methods like root derivation or a priori invention.

Conlangs can also be classified by their source material:

• A priori: The language's features are invented from scratch, without direct reference to existing natural languages (e.g., Klingon, Ithkuil).
• A posteriori: The language is heavily based on one or more existing natural languages (e.g., Esperanto, Interlingua).

The community of constructed language creators and enthusiasts is known as the conlanging community. With the advent of the Internet, this community has grown significantly, gathering on forums, social media, and dedicated websites such as the Conlang Mailing List (founded in 1991) and the Zompist Bboard.

The Language Creation Society (LCS) holds periodic conferences known as the Language Creation Conference (LCC), where linguists, conlangers, and media professionals gather to discuss the theory and practice of language creation.

• List of constructed languages
• Fictional language
• International auxiliary language
• Linguistics
• Secret language
• Zamenhof, L. L.

• Language Creation Society
• Conlang.org – A wiki and resource hub for conlangers
• Zompist.com – Resources and essays on conlanging by Mark Rosenfelder
• ConWorkShop – A collaborative online platform for creating and documenting constructed languages

Category:Linguistics