Top 10 Invented Languages

by Charlotte Coville

Inventing a language from scratch might seem like an odd way to spend your time, but there are good reasons to do it. People create languages for scientific, cultural and artistic purposes: to test theories about how the brain works, to help people communicate, to ‘improve’ existing languages, or because they just need a new language for a book they’re writing. Here are some of the best examples of invented languages:

10. Solresol

Developed by Francois Sudre in the first half of the nineteenth century, Solresol is an example of an international auxiliary language: a planned, deliberately simplified language created in order to make worldwide communication easier. Solresol was the first such language to gain any recognition, but what really made it unique is its musical basis: it contains a total of only seven syllables, made up of the names of the musical scale (do re mi fa so la si).
This arrangement meant that words could be written in musical notation, and that the language could be communicated by singing. Syllables could be expressed in seven colors and easily ‘read’ by the illiterate. Unfortunately, Solresol never really took off, although some devoted fans remain today.

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