Lingua ignota

A lingua ignota was described by the 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who apparently used it for mystical purposes. It consists of vocabulary with no known grammar; the only known text is individual words embedded in Latin. To write it, Hildegard used an alphabet of 23 letters denominated litterae ignotae.

History and corpus

Hildegard partially described the language in a work titled Ignota lingua per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata, which survived in two manuscripts, both dating to, the Wiesbaden Codex and a Berlin MS, previously Codex Cheltenhamensis 9303, collected by Sir Thomas Phillipps. The text is a glossary of 1011 words in Lingua ignota, with glosses mostly in Latin, sometimes in Middle High German; the words appear to be A priori coinages, mostly nouns with a few adjectives. Grammatically it appears to be a partial relexification of Latin, as in, a code or language formed by substituting new vocabulary into an existing grammar. Many words have ambiguous forms, such as either Zizain or Zizam meaning "dish". Likewise, occasional typos appear in the manuscript, such as glossing Kulzphazur as attavus instead of atavus or Maiz as maler instead of mater. As a personal language, Hildegard does not describe an invented culture or history along with it.
The purpose and creation history of lingua ignota is unknown, and it is not known who, besides its creator, was familiar with it. In the 19th century some believed that Hildegard intended her language to be an ideal, universal language. However, in the 21st century it is assumed that Lingua ignota was devised as a secret language; like Hildegard's "unheard music", she would have attributed it to divine inspiration. To the extent that the language was constructed by Hildegard, it may be considered one of the earliest known constructed languages.
In a letter to Hildegard, her friend and provost Wolmarus, fearing that Hildegard would soon die, asks ubi sunt, suggesting that the existence of Hildegard's language was known, but there were no initiates who would have preserved its knowledge after her death.

Sample text

The only extant text in the language is the following short passage:
These two sentences are written mostly in Latin with five key words in Lingua ignota; as only one of these is unambiguously found in the glossary, it is clear that the vocabulary was larger than 1011 words.
Loifol "people" is apparently inflected as a third declension Latin noun, yielding the genitive plural loifolum "of the peoples".
conjectures the translation:

Orthography and phonology

Hildegard wrote the language with its own alphabet, Litterae Ignotae, which covers the same letters as the contemporary Latin alphabet rather than any peculiar sounds. The Litterae Ignotae letters also do not appear to have names of their own. Per 1100s Latin writing, the letters , , and were not distinguished, nor were and . has a separate letter, despite rarely appearing in Lingua Ignota words. Additionally, each word takes an initial capital, fitting the way nouns are capitalized in High German. Punctuation is seldom seen and not described.
Modern latinizations often write and before a vowel but and elsewhere. Doubled or is common and is frequently transliterated as . Other writers use conventions of the time, while some use and or in all cases. The use , , and before consonants is not clear, nor are sequences of as opposed to .
Hildegard never described the pronunciation of the language but seemingly follows conventions of her native Middle High German, such as using the letter much more than . Lingua Ignota could have represented or, or perhaps both depending on the word. in turn likely represents something like or. Overall, however, what sounds are represented by each letter and in which word is not always clear.
Lingua Ignota uses frequent multigraphs such as , , , , , among others. It is not clear how many denoted unique sounds not covered by the standard alphabet, nor if any sounded the same as specific single letters or other multigraphs. Like the singular letters, their consistency in pronunciation is not known.

Vocabulary

The glossary is in a hierarchical order, first giving terms for God and angels, followed by terms for human beings and terms for family relationships, followed by terms for body-parts, illnesses, religious and worldly ranks, craftsworkers, days, months, clothing, household items, plants, and a few birds and insects. Terms for mammals are absent. Also lacking are most adjectives, numbers, and grammatical terms, as well as any verbs, adverbs, pronouns, or function words.
The first 30 entries are :

	Lingua ignota	Latin	English
1	Aigonz	deus	God
2	Aieganz	angelus	angel
3	Zuuenz	sanctus	saint
4	Livionz	salvator	savior
5	Diveliz	diabolus	devil
6	Ispariz	spiritus	spirit
7	Inimois	homo	human being
8	Jur	vir	man
9	Vanix	femina	woman
10	Pevearrez	patriarcha	patriarch
11	Korzinthio	propheta	prophet
12	Falschin	vates	soothsayer
13	Sonziz	apostolus	apostle
14	Linschiol	martir	martyr
15	Zanziver	confessor	confessor
16	Vrizoil	virgo	virgin
17	Jugiza	vidua	widow
18	Pangizo	penitens	penitent
19	Kulzphazur	atavus	ancestor
20	Phazur	avus	grandfather
21	Peveriz	pater	father
22	Maiz	mater	mother
23	Hilzpeveriz	nutricus	stepfather
24	Hilzmaiz	noverca	stepmother
25	Scirizin	filius	son
26	Hilzscifriz	privignus	stepson
27	Limzkil	infans	infant
28	Zains	puer	boy
29	Zunzial	juvenis	youth
30	Bischiniz	adolescens	adolescent

Nominal composition may be observed in many words: peveriz "father" → hilz-peveriz "stepfather", maiz "mother" → hilz-maiz "stepmother", and scirizin "son" → hilz-scifriz "stepson". Suffixal derivation can be seen in peveriz "father" → pevearrez "patriarch". As with the orthography, Middle High German influence is evident, such as the word "grandfather" begetting the word for "ancestor": phazur → kulz-phazur.
A few terms have more than one Lingua Ignota word assigned to them, such as abiza and comizaz both meaning "house". Whether there is any distinction in use and what kind is not made clear.

Editions

, listing only the 291 glosses with German translations.
, consisting of the 1011 glosses.
listing only the 181 glosses giving the names of plants.
, Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion, the entire Riesencodex glossary, with additions from the Berlin MS, translations into English, and extensive commentary.
Literature