An Introduction to Constructed Languages (Conlangs) and Why Creating Languages is Fun

The art of constructing languages has been around for many centuries. One of the first constructed languages of which we have original written documentation is the Lingua Ignota, which was designed by St. Hildegard of Bingen, a monastic leader and musical composer from Germany. Lingua Ignota is believed to be a sort of mystical language that Hildegard and his followers may have used in his sermons.

Constructed languages can be and have been designed for many various purposes, all of which are not readily apparent a majority of the time. Some people use them to code the information in their personal journals to be intelligible by only themselves, and some design them for art.

A notorious example is the Voynich manuscript, a perplexing and intriguing amalgam of symbols and pictures that was written approximately six centuries ago. Although it is not necessarily a constructed language, there is strong evidence proving that it is not a natural one, most apparent in the fact that no other documents are written in its script. Its exotic and foreign symbols have yet to be decoded, and the diagrams and images within it remain a mystery.

Perhaps one of the most famous constructed languages is Esperanto, created by a Polish man named Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof. It features a strong blend of many prominent romance languages, from French to Spanish to Italian. Esperanto originated in the late nineteenth century and is still studied today. Although Esperanto remains hidden from the general public, Zamenhof is known by many aficionados as the pioneer of constructed languages because he introduced a wider span of people to the subject.

Another famous constructed language is Klingon, which was used in the Star Trek television series. Marc Okrand was hired by Paramount Pictures to design a language for the television series to be used by a particular alien race within the production. In this manner, he was able to turn the art of constructing languages into a lucrative endeavor. It was his work that inspired me to get into the hobby, too.