Conlangs: Not Just Made-Up Words. A Quick Rundown!

Think language just, like, pops into existence? Nah. Not always. Some of the coolest, most complex languages out there? Totally built. On purpose. It’s the wild world of constructed languages, or conlangs for short. Seriously shows what we humans can DO. And a part of history most people just miss.

What Are Constructed Languages? (Conlangs)

So, conlangs? People build them. Every single part. The rules, the words, even how they sound. Not like real languages that just grow over time, ya know? These are totally planned. For reasons. Some wanna connect everyone. Universal talk. Like Esperanto. Others? They make made-up worlds feel, well, real. Super gritty. Think Elvish in Lord of the Rings. Fancy stuff. Or the rough Klingon in Star Trek. Every little bit: chosen. Not merely a hobby. It’s an art. A real science, actually.

Early Attempts: The Quest for Universal Talk

So yeah, people have always wanted one language. Just a common tongue, easy peasy. Stories like the Tower of Babel? Shows we’ve always yearned for it. Even way back, people tried. Like in the 12th century. This German mystic, Hildegard von Bingen, she made the first real conlang. Lingua Ignota. For monks. A secret little code, 23 tweaked Latin letters, ’bout a thousand words. Organized everything from God down to, like, furniture. Then, centuries later (13th to 16th), guys like Ramon Llull were poking at “Ars Magna.” Logic systems.

And another thing: Jump to the 17th century. An English philosopher, John Wilkins, had this wild idea. “A Philosophical Language.” Said language should be pure logic. Every word, exact meaning. “zb”? Animal. “zeba”? Domestic animal. “zebda”? Dog. Pretty specific. These early tries were key, though. Because a language isn’t just words. Needs a whole way of thinking. A worldview. Big stuff.

The 19th Century: Diverse Ideas, Big Dreams

The 19th century? That was the time for conlangs, no doubt. Jean-François Sudre made something unique: Solresol. Just seven music notes! You could speak it. Sing it. Color it. Even use hand signals! “Dorei” for person. “Doremifa” for humanity. Simple ideas? One sound. Complex ones? Three. Stephen Pearl Andrews, over in America, cooked up Universalia. For science. He figured sounds should mean something. “a” for big. “i” for small. Neat, huh? These were early hints at phonosemantics now.

Oh! Then Volapük showed up in 1879. Johan Martin Schleyer made it. A mix of English words, kinda. Trying for global chat. And, man, it blew up! Hundreds of clubs. Magazines. But, huge grammar issues. Weird pronunciation. Too tough. So, something simpler had to come along.

Esperanto: A Language of Hope

From the crazy mix of languages in 19th-century Eastern Europe, a smart guy showed up. L.L. Zamenhof. He knew what it felt like to have language problems. Grew up in Bialystok, part of the Russian Empire. Poles, Russians, Germans, Jews, Belarusians. All different languages. Lots of bad feelings. So, he saw what division did. Zamenhof, at 14, started messing with languages himself. He got ideas from Hebrew’s root system. Worked on his project for years. Finally, in 1887, put out “Unua Libro.” Used the name Dr. Esperanto. Meaning “one who hopes.” Yeah, it was hope.

The language? Super simple to learn. Nouns ended in “-o” (libro for book). Adjectives in “-a” (bona, like good). Verbs had just one pattern. And you could build on words like crazy. From sano (health) you got sana (healthy), or malsanulo (sick person), even malsanulejo (hospital). All from a few basic parts. Such a breeze to learn! So, Esperanto became a worldwide thing. Tolstoy and Einstein even noticed it.

But, rough road ahead. Not easy. The 20th century, under everyone from Nazis to Stalin, meant trouble. Esperanto speakers got targeted. Horrible stuff happened. Zamenhof’s three kids? They died in the Holocaust. And, jeez, that’s a sad reminder. A successful language isn’t just about how well it’s designed.

Tolkien’s Revolution: Languages for Worlds

Okay, so picture this: young J.R.R. Tolkien, chilling at Oxford. Smart guy. He thinks England needs its own myths. Real ones. And for those myths to feel real? He figured you needed real languages. For Tolkien, language wasn’t just talking. It reflected everything. A culture’s whole brain. Its history. Everything. Game changer. Tolkien crafted Quenya. High Elvish. Sounded like Finnish. Classy, poetic. Like Latin, used for big ceremonies, not daily chat. Its fancy structure shows in lines like “Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo” (“A star shines on the hour of our meeting”). Then came Sindarin. Like Welsh. For everyday elf talk, you know? Flowy sounds. Celtic-style changes to letters. Super musical. Tolkien proved conlangs could totally build worlds. Whole cultures. Epic stories. Not just for simple messages.

Conlangs in Pop Culture and World-Building

Tolkien’s way? Super influential. Star Trek producers, late 60s, needed alien talk. So, Mark Okrand, a linguist, made Klingon. Sounded harsh. Super alien. Object-Verb-Subject sentences structure! Only like one percent of real languages do that. Not about being easy. It was about being otherworldly.

More recently, “Game of Thrones.” David J. Peterson. He cooked up Dothraki and Valyrian. Used serious methods. His book, “The Art of Language Invention,” shows how he treated it like a science. For Dothraki, he looked at nomad groups. Put horse stuff right into the words. “Rh”? Meant “settled,” but also “barren land.” Says a lot about how Dothraki see the world. And for James Cameron’s “Avatar,” Paul Frommer designed Na’vi. A language for aliens. But still had to be human-learnable. Wild sounds, weird verb stuff, strange vowels. Na’vi? A truly cool idea for what alien speech might actually sound like.

Wanna make a fictional world real? You gotta have the language. It makes EVERYTHING.

Yeah, conlanging isn’t just weird niche stuff anymore. It’s a field using scientific ways to get things done. What’s next? No idea! languages for Mars colonists? Talking to actual aliens? Who knows! But one thing’s for sure: making languages, any kind, is just one of the best ways we humans show ourselves. To dream big. To shape tomorrow. And this whole trip? It’s really just the beginning.

Frequently Asked Questions

So, natural vs. constructed language? Big deal?

Natural languages (think English, Spanish)? They just kinda change over hundreds of years. People use ’em, they evolve. Conlangs? Someone
makes them. On purpose! Rules set. Goals like fiction or a global talk.

Who made Esperanto and why?

L.L. Zamenhof. 1887. Grew up where tons of languages clashed. Lots of tension. So, his main goal was a super simple, neutral, easy auxiliary language. To help people understand each other. Make peace!

How was Tolkien’s language game different?

Earlier conlangers were often after universal talk. Or just pure logic. Tolkien? Not so much. He wanted words for cultures. Art. Built languages like Quenya, Sindarin. Not just tools for messages. A living part of his Middle-earth history. Reflecting how folks there thought.