Engineered languages (often abbreviated to engelangs, or, less commonly, engilangs) are
constructed languages
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. ...
devised to test or prove some hypotheses about how languages work or might work. There are at least three subcategories,
philosophical languages
A philosophical language is any constructed language that is constructed from first principles. It is considered a type of engineered language. Philosophical languages were popular in Early Modern times, partly motivated by the goal of revising no ...
(or ideal languages), logical languages (sometimes abbreviated as ''loglangs''), and
experimental languages. Raymond Brown describes engineered languages as "languages that are designed to specified ''objective'' criteria, and modeled to meet those criteria".
Some engineered languages have been considered candidate global
auxiliary languages, and some languages intended as international auxiliary languages have certain "engineered" aspects (in which they are more regular and systematic than their natural language sources).
Logical languages
Logical languages are meant to allow (or enforce) unambiguous statements. They are typically based on
predicate logic
First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quanti ...
but can also be based on any system of formal
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premis ...
. The two best-known logical languages are the predicate languages
Loglan and its successor
Lojban. They both aim to eliminate
syntactical ambiguity and reduce
semantic ambiguity to a minimum. In particular, the
grammar of Lojban is carefully engineered to express such predicate logic in an unambiguous manner.
Philosophical languages
Philosophical languages are designed to reflect some aspect of philosophy, particularly with respect to the nature or potential of any given language.
John Wilkins
John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is one of the f ...
'
Real Character and Edward Powell Foster's
Ro constructed their words using a taxonomic tree. Vocabularies of
oligosynthetic languages, for example Ygyde,
are made of
compound word
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs wh ...
s, which are coined from a small (theoretically minimal) set of
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ar ...
s. Sonja Lang's
Toki Pona
Toki Pona (rendered as ''toki pona'' and often translated as 'the language of good'; ; ) is a philosophical artistic constructed language (philosophical artlang) known for its small vocabulary, simplicity, and ease of acquisition. It was create ...
is based on
minimalistic Minimalism is a movement in visual arts, music, and other media that began in post–World War II Western art.
Minimalism may also refer to:
*Minimalism (computing), a philosophy of programming and configuring computers
*Minimalism (philosophy), ...
simplicity
Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. Something easy to understand or explain seems simple, in contrast to something complicated. Alternatively, as Herbert A. Simon suggests, something is simple or complex depending on the way we ...
.
Experimental languages
An experimental language 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 ...
designed for the purpose of exploring some element in the theory of
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
. Most such languages are concerned with the relation between
language and thought; however, languages have been constructed to explore other aspects of language as well. In
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
, much work has been done on the assumption popularly known as the
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
The hypothesis of linguistic relativity, also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis , the Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, is a principle suggesting that the structure of a language affects its speakers' worldview or cognition, and thus people' ...
,
Suzette Haden Elgin
Suzette Haden Elgin (born Patricia Anne Suzette Wilkins; November 18, 1936 – January 27, 2015) was an American researcher in experimental linguistics, construction and evolution of languages and poetry and science fiction writer. She founded t ...
's
Láadan
Láadan (/ˈlɑ˦ɑˈdɑn/) is a gynocentric constructed language created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, specifically to determine if development of a language aimed at expressing the views of women would sh ...
is designed to lexicalize and grammaticalize the concepts and distinctions important to women, based on
muted group theory Muted group theory (MGT), created by Edwin Ardener and Shirley Ardener in 1975, is a communication theory that focuses on how marginalized groups are muted and excluded via the use of language. The main idea of MGT is that "Language serves its creat ...
.
Examples
See also
*
Controlled natural language
Controlled natural languages (CNLs) are subsets of natural languages that are obtained by restricting the grammar and vocabulary in order to reduce or eliminate ambiguity and complexity. Traditionally, controlled languages fall into two major types ...
*
International auxiliary language
An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from all different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primaril ...
*
Artistic language
An artistic language, or artlang, is a constructed language designed for aesthetic and phonetic pleasure. Language can be artistic to the extent that artists use it as a source of creativity in art, poetry, calligraphy or as a metaphor to address ...
*
Ithkuil
*
Lojban
References
External links
Garrett's Links to Logical Languages by And Rosta (CONLANG mailing list post, 19 July 2007)
{{Constructed languages
Constructed languages
Interlinguistics