Bolak Language
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Bolak is a
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. ...
that was invented by
Léon Bollack Léon Bollack (1859 – 1925) was a French trader who invented Bolak language, Bolak, a constructed language that also went by the name "the Blue Language", in 1899.

History

Bollack wrote three books on this language: ''La Langue Bleue Bolak: langue internationale pratique'' (1899), ''Abridged Grammar of the Blue Language'' (1900) and ''Premier vocabulaire de la langue bleue Bolak'' (1902). Bollack caught the attention of
H.G. Wells, who wrote in ''
A Modern Utopia ''A Modern Utopia'' is a 1905 novel by H. G. Wells. Because of the complexity and sophistication of its narrative structure, ''A Modern Utopia'' has been called "not so much a modern as a postmodern utopia."Michael Sherborne, ''H.G. Wells: Anot ...
'':
The language of Utopia will no doubt be one and indivisible; all mankind will, in the measure of their individual differences in quality, be brought into the same phase, into a common resonance of thought, but the language they will speak will still be a living tongue, an animated system of imperfections, which every individual man will infinitesimally modify. Through the universal freedom of exchange and movement, the developing change in its general spirit will be a world-wide change; that is the quality of its universality. I fancy it will be a coalesced language, a synthesis of many. Such a language as English is a coalesced language; it is a coalescence of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French and Scholar's Latin, welded into one speech more ample and more powerful and beautiful than either. The Utopian tongue might well present a more spacious coalescence, and hold in the frame of such an uninflected or slightly inflected idiom as English already presents, a profuse vocabulary into which have been cast a dozen once separate tongues, superposed and then welded together through bilingual and trilingual compromises. ootnote: Vide an excellent article, La Langue Française en l'an 2003, par Leon Bollack, in La Revue, 15 Juillet, 1903.In the past ingenious men have speculated on the inquiry, "Which language will survive?" The question was badly put. I think now that this wedding and survival of several in a common offspring is a far more probable thing.
Despite the attention of Wells and money invested by Bollack, the language gained no adherents, and Bollack went on to support
Ido Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...
, according to
Otto Jespersen Jens Otto Harry Jespersen (; 16 July 1860 – 30 April 1943) was a Danish linguist who specialized in the grammar of the English language. Steven Mithen described him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth ce ...
, writing in 1912 in ''The History of our Language'' about a conference that had taken place in 1907:
The inventors of language systems had been invited to attend either in person or by representative to defend their systems. This offer was availed of by Dr. Nicolas (
Spokil Spokil is a constructed language created by the Frenchman Adolphe Nicolas. During the 1880s, the most popular international auxiliary language was undeniably Volapük. However, after a brief period of overwhelming success, rivalry on the part ...
), Mr. Spitzer (Parla) and Mr. Bollack (La langue bleue); moreover Dr. Zamenhof got himself represented by Mr. de Beaufront, who had been propagating Esperanto for many years; and almost as representative of Neutral came Mr. Monseur, professor of comparative philology in Brussels: yet his plea had the character less of a positive defence of Neutral than of a zealous and expert insistence on the weaknesses of
Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
. Of the discussions with those outside the committee two episodes deserve special mention: Dr. Nicolas emphasised as an advantage of his system founded on "a priori" principles, that it was constructed in accordance with a firm grasp of the laws of mnemonics and therefore was especially easy to remember. Yet he was almost offended when I wished to begin examining him about his own dictionary, and so it appeared that he could not remember the words which he himself had made. Mr. Bollack in a very elegant discourse presented his Langue bleue for the diffusion of which he had devoted a great deal of money; he ended by declaring that although he wished naturally that his language should be adopted, he would nevertheless accept the verdict of the committee of experts if it went otherwise; this promise he has kept loyally by being now an eminent member of the
Ido Ido () is a constructed language derived from Reformed Esperanto, and similarly designed with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse backgrounds. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary language'', I ...
organization in Paris.


Alphabet and pronunciation

Bolak uses a modified
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
with 19 letters: A, B, Ч, D, E, F, G, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V. Ч is taken from
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...
and has the sound of English ch. Other letters are pronounced as in French.


Grammar

Bolak is a mixed language, whose grammar is mostly ''a priori'' while the vocabulary is ''a posteriori''. It is also an
agglutinative language 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 remain ...
, much like
Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
but while Esperanto uses agglutination mainly logically, Bolak uses it mainly emotionally.


Examples

The
Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
:
Nea per ev seri in sil!
Vea nom eч santigui! Vea regn eч komi!
Vea vil eч makui in sil, so ib gev!
Ev givi nea pan taged ana!
Ev solvi nae fansu so ne solvo aчe re ufanso na!
Eч seri siч!
The numbers 1–10:
ven, dov, ter, far, kel, gab, чep, lok, nif, dis.
What an immense advantage for mankind, if from people to people we could communicate through the same language!
Ak vop sfermed pro spes maned, if om pobl to pobl, ne ei mnoka pfo an am lank!
An international language is the most important tool for the development of any social progress.
An lank transed seri psil ifkased pro flep ad at ksek skosmed.French texts translated in la Langue Bleue


Encoding

Bolak has been assigned the codes and in the
ConLang Code Registry 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. ...
.


Bibliography

*''La Langue Bleue Bolak: langue internationale pratique'', Paris: 1899 (480+ p.). *''Abridged grammar of the Blue Language'' ranslated by Tischer Paris: Pres. Dupont, 1900 (64 p.). *''Premier vocabulaire de la langue bleue Bolak'', Paris: 1902 (90+ p.).


References


External links


Bolak Manual
on Langmaker.com
Bolak Grammar
on
Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{Authority control Agglutinative languages Constructed languages International auxiliary languages Constructed languages introduced in the 1890s 1899 introductions