What is a conlang?
The term “conlang” is a portmanteau of the words “constructed” and “language”, and a conlang is precisely that: it is a constructed language.
Conlangs are contrasted with natural languages in that conlangs are always (or at least almost always) a conscious creation of one person – or a group of people, as the case is with collaborative conlangs – as opposed to something that has developed naturally. Conlangs may be constructed for a number of different reasons, including, but not limited to: for artistic or aethestic reasons; to be used in a constructed/fictional world; for experimental purposes; or to help facilitate international communication. Conlangs which fall into the latter category are often called “auxlangs” – [international] auxiliary languages – and are often rather different from artistic conlangs: auxlangs are created to be logical, functional, straightforward and easy to learn for a majority of people (the good auxlangs are, anyway), whereas artistic conlangs are designed, simply, to be beautiful and not necessarily logical, easy to learn or even all that functional.
Some of the most famous conlangs include Tolkien’s languages, most notably the Elven ones – Quenya and Sindarin especially – which were designed to be both naturalistic and beautiful; they also are part of a fictional world known as Arda. Then there is Marc Okrand’s Klingon, which was deliberately designed to be “alien”. Other famous (or semi-famous (or virtually unheard-of)) languages are Zamenhof’s Esperanto, possibly the most well-known (and most used) auxlang in the world; and John Quijada’s Ithkuil, which may well be the single most esoteric and unusual language I’ve personally ever seen.
With the advent of James Cameron’s Avatar, the language Na’vi has also gained some popularity. It is a surprisingly nicely designed language for a surprisingly average film.
For most conlangers – that is, people who create conlangs – it seems that the whole process of actually constructing an entire language is a lifelong undertaking. I have found that conlangs change and grow alongside their creators – features are added, or removed, or improved on in some way; the phonology and orthography may change and be refined; and vocabulary is ever expanded. That said, many conlangers do feel that their languages are at least to some degree finished.
What languages have you created?
I shouldn’t have to mention it at this point, but I’m going to anyway: I am a conlanger. Constructing languages is one of my main hobbies – alongside a bunch of other things – and here on this website is a complete documentation of the conlangs I consider finished enough to warrant online publication a semi-complete documentation of one language and two placeholders.
These languages are all part of a mostly undocumented fictional world – whose name in Cenyani is Éo – which I (of course) have created. I admittedly have spent a lot more time designing the languages and the cultures and peoples associated with them than I have designing the geography and general appearance of the world in which they are spoken. It is worth noting, too, that Cenyani is the only language whose grammar I consider to be complete; the other languages still have things I need to work out. I won’t describe the languages on this page – there is more than enough text on the respective languages’ pages the page about Cenyani – and will instead merely link to them here:
There is also a fourth language which doesn’t even have a name yet. Once I come up with one, I’ll add it to the list to tease you for two years before I actually write anything down about it.
