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Engineered languages (sometimes abbreviated to engelangs), are constructed languages devised to test or prove some hypothesis about how languages work or might work. There are at least three subcategories, philosophical languages (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" [1]. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose vocabulary and grammar were specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... It has been suggested that Vorlin be merged into this article or section. ...

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). An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ...

Logical languages

Logical languages are meant to allow (or enforce) unambiguous statements. They are typically based on predicate logic but can be based on any system of formal logic. The two best-known logical languages are the predicate languages Loglan and its successor Lojban, which aim to eliminate syntactical ambiguity and reduce semantic ambiguity to a minimum. Ceqli is a derivative of Loglan which aims to retain the power of unambiguous expression but allow the speaker to trade off conciseness for unambiguity. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (meaning word, account, reason or principle), is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. ... Loglan is a constructed language originally designed for linguistic research, particularly for investigating the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. ... Lojban (IPA , official full name Lojban: a realization of Loglan) is a syntactically unambiguous, predicate logic-based constructed language which was created by the Logical Language Group in 1987 as a realization of Loglan, with the intent to make the language more complete, usable, and freely available. ... Ceqli is an artificial language created by Rex F. May. ...

Philosophical languages

Main article: Philosophical language

Philosophical languages are designed to reflect some aspect of philosophy, particularly with respect to the nature or potential of language. John Wilkins' Real Character and Edward Powell Foster's Ro [2] constructed their words using a taxonomic tree. Vocabularies of oligosynthetic languages are made of compound words, which are coined from a small (theoretically minimal) set of morphemes. Suzette Haden Elgin's Láadan is designed to lexicalize and grammaticalize the concepts and distinctions important to women, based on muted group theory. Sonja Elen Kisa's Toki Pona is based on minimalistic simplicity, incorporating elements of Taoism. Engineered languages, sometimes called engelangs, are constructed languages devised to test or prove some hypothesis about how languages work or might work. ... John Wilkins. ... The chief of the numerous works of John Wilkins was An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (London, 1668), in which he expounds a new universal language for the use of philosophers. ... Look up ro, RO in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Oligosynthetic (from the Greek ὀλίγος, meaning few, little) is a hypothetical designation for a language using an extremely small array of morphemes, perhaps numbering only in the hundreds, which combine synthetically to form statements. ... A compound is a word (lexeme) that consists of more than one free morpheme. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Suzette Haden Elgin is an American science fiction author. ... Láadan is a constructed language created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis for women, specifically to determine if Western natural languages were better suited for expressing the views of men than women. ... Muted Group Theory developed out of the cultural anthropology field, but more recently has been developed in communication mostly as a feminist and cross-cultural theory. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features and core self expression. ... Voluntary simplicity (or simple living) is a lifestyle considered by its adherents to be a sustainable, ecologically sensitive alternative to the typical, western consumerist lifestyle. ... Taoism (Daoism) is the English name referring to a variety of related Chinese philosophical and religious traditions and concepts. ...

Experimental languages

John Quijada's Ithkuil is designed for maximum morpho-phonological conciseness. R. Srikanth's Lin is designed for maximum orthographic conciseness. Mark P. Line's Classical Yiklamu is designed as a basis for a Russian lawn experiment, starting with grammatical simplicity and a large lexicon with no derivational morphology. In contrast, Sonja Kisa's Toki Pona is an experimental minimum of conciseness similar to the Natural semantic metalanguage (except that Toki Pona is a language in active use while NSM is only theoretical). Example of Ithkuil script Ithkuil (Iţkuîl) is an extremely dense constructed human language created by American linguist John Quijada between 1978 and 2004. ... The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is an approach to semantic analysis based on reductive paraphrase (that is, breaking concepts/words down into combinations of simpler concepts/words, see oligosynthetic) using a small collection of semantic primes. ...

Examples of engineered languages

See the List of Engineered Languages for examples. This list of constructed languages is in alphabetical order, and divided into auxiliary, engineered, and artistic languages, and their respective subgenres. ...

External links

• Garrett's Links to Logical Languages
• Conlang Directory: Logical

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