Engineered language

Engineered languages (sometimes abbreviated to "engilangs" or "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" [http://www.carolandray.plus.com/Glosso/Glossopoeia.html] .

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 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.

Philosophical languages

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 [http://www.langmaker.com/outpost/ro.htm] 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.

Experimental languages

John Quijada's Ithkuil is designed for maximum morpho-phonological conciseness. R. Srikanth's [http://www.iiap.res.in/personnel/srik/Lin.html Lin] is designed for maximum orthographic conciseness. Mark P. Line's [http://www.polymathix.com/yiklamu/classical/index.html Classical Yiklamu] is designed as a basis for a Russian lawn experiment, starting with grammatical simplicity and a large lexicon with no derivational morphology.

Examples of engineered languages

See the List of Engineered Languages for examples.

External links

* [http://minyeva.alkaline.org/links.htm Garrett's Links to Logical Languages]
* [http://www.langmaker.com/db/Category:Loglangs Conlang Directory: Logical]
* [http://archives.conlang.info/phi/zelghon/jhaufuersuan.html Origin of the term "engelang"] , by And Rosta (CONLANG mailing list post, 19 July 2007)