A constructed language or “conlang” is a language that an individual or group has deliberately created with a purpose in mind, as opposed to languages that have arisen naturally. Today, when most people today hear this term, they think immediately of languages used in works of fiction, such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish language Quenya (which he created long before he used it in his novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), Klingon from the television series Star Trek, or Dothraki and High Valyrian from Game of Thrones.
Many people may be surprised to learn that the oldest examples of what we might call constructed languages were not created for fictional worldbuilding at all, but rather as a philosophical or theological exercise. Such examples are also far older than many readers may realize, dating all the way back to the Middle Ages.
Continue reading “What Was the First Conlang?”