Balaibalan ( ota, باليبلن, Bâleybelen) is the oldest known

constructed language 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, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...

History

Balaibalan is the only well-documented early constructed language that is not of European origin, and it is independent of the fashion for language construction that occurred in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

. In contrast to the philosophical languages which prevailed then, and the languages designed for facilitating worldwide communication or for use in literature or film most prominent today, Balaibalan was probably designed as a holy or poetic language for religious reasons, like Lingua Ignota and perhaps

Damin Damin ( in the practical orthography of Lardil) was a ceremonial language register used by the advanced initiated men of the aboriginal Lardil ( in the practical orthography) and Yangkaal peoples of northern Australia. Both inhabit island ...

. Balaibalan may also have been a secret language which was only known by an inner circle. It may have been created by 14th century mystic

Fazlallah Astarabadi Fażlu l-Lāh Astar-Ābādī ( fa, فضل‌الله استرآبادی, 1339/40 in Astarābād – 1394 in Nakhchivan), also known as Fażlullāh Tabrīzī AstarābādīIrène Mélikoff. ''Hadji Bektach: un mythe et ses avatars : genèse et évo ...

, founder of

Hurufism Hurufism ( ar, حُرُوفِيَّة ''ḥurūfiyyah'', Persian: حُروفیان ''hōrufiyān'') was a Sufi movement based on the mysticism of letters (''ḥurūf''), which originated in Astrabad and spread to areas of western Iran (Persia ...

, or collectively by his followers in the 15th century, or may have been Muhyî-i Gülşenî, born in

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders ...

, a member of the Gülşenî sufi order in Cairo; in any case, the elaboration of the language was a collective endeavour. The sole documentary attestation of Bâleybelen is a dictionary, copies of which are to be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and in the

Princeton University Library Princeton University Library is the main library system of Princeton University. With holdings of more than 7 million books, 6 million microforms, and 48,000 linear feet of manuscripts, it is among the largest libraries in the world by number of ...

Linguistic properties

Balaibalan is an

a priori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ...

language, written with the

Ottoman alphabet The Ottoman Turkish alphabet ( ota, الفبا, ') is a version of the Arabic script used to write Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized regi ...

( Arabic script). The grammar follows the lead of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Turkish and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

; like Turkish, it is

agglutinating An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remai ...

. Much of the lexis appears wholly invented, but some words are borrowed from Arabic and the other source languages, and others can be traced back to words of the source languages in an indirect manner, via Sufi metaphor. For example: * , the stem of the verb 'deliberate', is explained by the dictionary as being built out of the letters ''b'', which indicates shared action between multiple people, and ''g'', which indicates publicizing. * 'origin' appears to be borrowed from Arabic , which means 'essence.' * 'mouth' may reflect the Arabic name of the letter , whose shape is often compared in poetry to that of a mouth.

Notes

References

Sources

* A. Bausani, Geheim- und Universalsprachen: Entwicklung und Typologie. Stuttgart, 1970:

Kohlhammer Verlag W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-l ...

. * A. Bausani, Le lingue inventate : linguaggi artificiali, linguaggi segreti, linguaggi universali - Roma : Ubaldini, 1974. * F. Bergmann, Résumé d'études d'odontologie générale et du linguistique générale, Paris, 1875 * Silvestre DeSacy, Kitab asl al-maqasid wa fasl al marasid, Le capital des objets recherchés et le chapitre des choses attendues, ou Dictionnaire de l'idiome Balaïbalan. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale

aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Howard, Former President of the Jama ...

9: 365–396. * E. Drezen, Historio de la Mondolingvo, Moskvo 1991: Progreso. * Charles Häberl, Bālaybalan, in Encyclopædia Iranica, to appear.

* M. Koç, Bâleybelen: İlk Yapma Dil. Istanbul, 2005. *

External links

BĀLAYBALAN LANGUAGE
at ''

Encyclopaedia Iranica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article ...

''
Balaibalan and Muhyî-i Gülşenî
(in Turkish)

(in Turkish) * Online copies of original manuscripts a
Bibliothèque nationale de France

Princeton University Library
{{Constructed languages Constructed languages Turkish literature International auxiliary languages Language and mysticism