List of constructed languages
The following list of notable constructed languages is divided into auxiliary language|auxiliary], ritual, engineered, and artistic languages, and their respective subgenres. All entries on this list have further information on separate Wikipedia articles.
Auxiliary languages
International auxiliary languages
International auxiliary languages are languages constructed to provide easy, fast, and/or improved communication among all human beings, or a significant portion, without necessarily replacing native languages.| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Solresol | 1827 | Based on pitch levels sounded with their solfege syllables although no knowledge of music is required to learn it. | ||
| Communicationssprache | 1839 | Based on French. | ||
| Universalglot | 1868 | An early a posteriori language, predating even Volapük. | ||
| Volapük | vo, vol | 1879–1880 | First to generate international interest in IALs. | |
| Esperanto | eo, epo | 1887 | The most popular auxiliary language ever invented, including, possibly, up to two million speakers, the highest ever for a constructed language and the only one to date to have its own Native [Esperanto speakers|native speakers]. | |
| Mundolinco | 1888 | The first Esperantido. | ||
| Bolak, "Blue Language" | 1899 | Prospered fairly well in its initial years; now almost forgotten. | ||
| Idiom Neutral | 1902 | A naturalistic IAL by a former advocate of Volapük. | ||
| Latino sine Flexione | la-peano | 1903 | "Latin without inflection", it replaced Idiom Neutral in 1908. | |
| Ro | 1904 | An a priori language using categories of knowledge. | ||
| Ido | io, ido | 1907 | The most successful offspring of Esperanto. | |
| Adjuvilo | 1910 | An Esperantido some believe was created to cause dissent among Idoists. | ||
| Timerio | 1921 | A language where each concept is replaced with a number, intended to be used as a means for automatic translation. | ||
| Interlingue | ie, ile | 1922 | A sophisticated naturalistic IAL, also known as Occidental. | |
| Novial | nov | 1928 | Another sophisticated naturalistic IAL by a famous Danish linguist. | |
| Sona | 1935 | Agglutinative language with universal vocabulary. Its 360 radicals can be combined to form new words. | ||
| Esperanto II | 1937 | Last of linguist Saussure's many Esperantidos. | ||
| Mondial | 1940s | Naturalistic European language. | ||
| Interglossa | igs | 1943 | It has a strong Greco-Latin vocabulary. | |
| Interlingua | ia, ina | 1951 | A major effort to systematize the international scientific vocabulary. It aims to be immediately comprehensible by Romance language speakers and to some extent English speakers. | |
| Intal | 1956 | An effort to unite the most common systems of constructed languages. | ||
| Lingua sistemfrater | 1957 | Pham Xuan Thai | Greco-Latin vocabulary with southeast Asian grammar. | |
| Neo | neu | 1961 | A very terse Esperantido. | |
| Babm | 1962 | Notable for using Latin letters as a syllabary. | ||
| Unilingua (now Mirad) | 1966 | A priori ontological vocabulary. Every letter has semantic or functional meaning. | ||
| Arcaicam Esperantom | eo-arkaika | 1969 | 'Archaic Esperanto', developed to produce an archaic effect in Esperanto literature. | |
| Eurolengo | 1972 | Combines elements of English and Spanish. | ||
| Glosa | 1975 | An evolution of Interglossa. | ||
| Kotava | avk | 1978 | A sophisticated a priori IAL focused on cultural neutrality. | |
| Uropi | 1986 | Based on the common Indo-European roots and the common grammatical points of the IE languages. | ||
| Poliespo | 1990s? | Esperanto grammar with significant Cherokee vocabulary. | ||
| Romániço | 1991 | Vocabulary is derived from common Romance roots. | ||
| Europanto | 1996 | A "linguistic jest" by a European diplomat. | ||
| Unish | 1996 | Vocabulary from fifteen representative languages. | ||
| Lingua Franca Nova | lfn | 1998 | Romance vocabulary with creole-like grammar. | |
| Sambahsa-Mundialect | 2007 | Mixture of simplified Proto-Indo-European and other languages. | ||
| Lingwa de planeta | 2010 | Worldlang based on Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. |
Zonal auxiliary languages
Zonal auxiliary languages are languages created with the purpose of facilitating communication between speakers of a certain group of related languages. Unlike international auxiliary languages for global uses, they are intended to serve a limited linguistic or geographic area. Examples include Pan-Slavic languages, Pan-Romance languages and Pan-Germanic languages.| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Ruski jezik | 1666 | The first known example of an artificially created Pan-Slavic language. | ||
| Tutonish | 1901 | The first Pan-Germanic language, later reformed under names like nu teutonish, alteutonik, etc. | ||
| Romanid | 1956 | A zonal auxiliary language based on the Romance languages. | ||
| Guosa | 1965 | A zonal auxiliary language for West Africa derived primarily from Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. | ||
| Afrihili | afh | 1970 | A pan-African language. | |
| Runyakitara | A standardized language based on four closely related languages of western Uganda. | |||
| Palawa kani | 1992 | Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre | Based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various Tasmanian languages once spoken by the eastern Aboriginal Tasmanians. | |
| Slovio | 1999 | A constructed language based on the Slavic languages and Esperanto grammar. | ||
| Romance Neolatino | 2006 | and others | A Pan-Romance language | |
| Slovianski | 2006 | A naturalistic language based on the Slavic languages. | ||
| Neoslavonic | 2009 | A modernized form of Old Church Slavonic. | ||
| Budinos | 2009 | A zonal auxiliary language based on the Finno-Ugric languages. | ||
| Interslavic | isv | 2011–2017 | A Pan-Slavic zonal auxiliary language, the result of the merger of Slovianski and Neoslavonic. | |
| Ortatürk / Öztürkçe | 1992, 2008 | Baxtiyar Kärimov, Shoahmad Mutalov | A Pan-Turkic zonal auxiliary language, with statistically calculated vocabulary. |
Controlled languages
Controlled natural languages are natural languages that have been altered to make them simpler, easier to use, or more acceptable in certain circumstances, such as for use by people who do not speak the original language well. The following projects are examples of controlled English:| Name | Origin | Creator | Comments |
| Basic English | 1925 | Charles Kay Ogden | Seek to limit the language to a given list of common-use words and terms in order to make it simpler to foreign learners or other people who may have difficulties. |
| Special (Learning) English | 1959 | Voice of America | Seek to limit the language to a given list of common-use words and terms in order to make it simpler to foreign learners or other people who may have difficulties. |
| Globish | 2004 | Jean-Paul Nerrière | Seek to limit the language to a given list of common-use words and terms in order to make it simpler to foreign learners or other people who may have difficulties. |
| E-Prime | 1940s | D. David Bourland Jr. | Eliminates the verb to be with the intent of making writing more expressive and accurate. |
| Simplified Technical English | 1983 | European Association of Aerospace Industries | Seeks to largely reduce the complexity and ambiguity of technical texts such as manuals. |
| Parallel English | 1998 | Madhukar Gogate | A constructed language, which is based on, but independent of, English. |
| Plain English | Various | Proposes a more direct, short, clear language by avoiding many idioms, jargon and foreign words. |
Visual languages
Visual languages use symbols or movements in place of the spoken word. Constructed sign languages also fall in this category.| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Comments |
| Blissymbols | zbl | 1949 | Charles K. Bliss | An ideographic writing system, with its own grammar and syntax. |
| International Sign | ils | 1970s | Jasin Maloku | International auxiliary sign language. Also known as Gestuno. |
| Isotype | 1925–1934 | Otto Neurath et al. | A pictographic language. |
Ritual languages
These are languages in actual religious use by their communities or congregations.| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Comments |
| Iyaric | c. 1930s | Rastas | "Rasta Talk" "Dread Talk" Constructed in the Rastafari Movement to replace lost ancestral African languages. | |
| Eskayan | esy | c. 1920–1940 | Mariano Datahan | Grammatically based on the Boholano dialect of Cebuano. |
| Medefaidrin | dmf | 1930s | Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ church | Used by this Nigerian Christian church |
| Damin | unknown | the Lardil people | Created by native speakers of Lardil; only click language outside Africa. |
Engineered languages
Engineered languages are devised to test a hypothesis or experiment with innovative linguistic features. They may fall into one or more of three categories: philosophical, experimental and logical.| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Logopandecteision | 1653 | Sir Thomas Urquhart | Suggestions toward a taxonomic language of great complexity. | |
| Unnamed language | 1668 | John Wilkins | Detailed suggestions for a symbolic language capable of philosophical precision. | |
| Loglan | 1955 | James Cooke Brown | Created to test the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis; the inspiration for Lojban. | |
| aUI | 1962 | W. John Weilgart | Each phoneme is also a morpheme and a sememe, so that a single word can express a complex idea. | |
| Ithkuil | 1978–2023 | John Quijada | Complex language designed to express deeper meanings briefly and clearly. | |
| Láadan | ldn | 1982 | Suzette Haden Elgin | A tonal language oriented towards women; created to test if natural languages are biased towards men. |
| Lojban | jbo | 1987 | Logical Language Group | Logical and syntactically unambiguous language; successor of Loglan. |
| Toki Pona | tok | 2001 | Sonja Lang | Minimalist language with 120137+ words, with over 1600 speakers. |
| Kēlen | 2009 | Sylvia Sotomayor | An alien language that attempts to eliminate verbs, which would violate a universal feature among natural human languages. | |
| Viossa | 2014 | Artificial pidgin language with no strict grammar or phonetic rules; accepted as correct as long as speakers can understand each other. |
Artistic/fictional languages
Languages mainly used in fiction
Constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien
Tolkien's most prominent languages are:| Language | ISO | Description |
| Sindarin | sjn | an Elvish language, largely inspired by Welsh. |
| Quenya | qya | an Elvish language, largely inspired by Finnish, Latin, and Ancient Greek. |
| Khuzdul | a Dwarvish language, largely inspired by the Semitic languages. |
Film
| Name | Work | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Klingon | Star Trek | 1979–present | Marc Okrand | Language of the Klingon alien species. |
| Atlantean | Atlantis: The Lost Empire | 2001 | Marc Okrand | Language of the citizens of the mythical city of Atlantis. |
| Ku | The Interpreter | 2005 | Said el-Gheithy | Fictional African language. |
| Naʼvi | Avatar | 2009 | Paul Frommer | Spoken by the Naʼvi. |
| Barsoomian | John Carter | 2012 | Paul Frommer, Edgar Rice Burroughs | Language of the Martians. |
| Kiliki | Baahubali | 2015 | Madhan Karky | Spoken by the Kalakeyas. |
Other literature
| Name | Work | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Utopian | Utopia | 1516 | Thomas More, Pieter Gillis | Constructed language created for the residents of More's fictional nation of Utopia; one of the first attempts at a constructed language. |
| Zaum | 1913 | Velimir Khlebnikov, Aleksei Kruchonykh et al. | Poetic tongue elaborated by these Russian Futurists as a "transrational" and "most universal" language "of songs, incantations, and curses." | |
| Syldavian | The Adventures of Tintin, mostly in King Ottokar's Sceptre | 1938–39 | Hergé | Fictional West Germanic language of Syldavia, a Balkan kingdom. |
| Bordurian | The Adventures of Tintin, mostly in The Calculus Affair | 1954–56 | Hergé | Language of Borduria, a country bordering Syldavia. |
| Spocanian | 1962 | Rolandt Tweehuysen | Language of Spocania. | |
| Chakobsa | Dune | 1965 | Frank Herbert, David J. Peterson, Jessie Peterson | Spoken by the Fremen. |
| Lapine | Watership Down | 1972 | Richard Adams | Spoken by rabbits. |
| Láadan | Native Tongue and sequels | 1984 | Suzette Haden Elgin | Spoken by women. |
Alternative languages
Some experimental languages were developed to observe hypotheses of alternative linguistic interactions which could have led to very different modern languages. The following two examples were created for Ill Bethisad, an alternate history project.| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Brithenig | bzt | 1996 | Andrew Smith | A Romance language that replaced native Celtic languages in Great Britain instead of the Germanic Anglo-Saxon. A scenario where British Latin survived and developed further into a modern language. |
| Wenedyk | 2002 | Jan van Steenbergen | Polish as a Romance language. A language with Polish phonetics and orthography but with Romance instead of Slavic vocabulary. |
Micronational languages
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Talossan | tzl | 1980 | R. Ben Madison | Used for the Talossa micronation |
| Flandriaans | 2024 | Used for the Grand Duchy of Flandrensis micronation. The language is based on West Germanic languages, mainly on Dutch and English. |
Personal languages
| Name | ISO | Origin | Creator | Description |
| Lingua ignota | 12th century | Hildegard of Bingen | Latin-influenced mystical language. | |
| Balaibalan | zba | c. 14th to 16th century | Muhyî-i Gülşenî | Language with mostly a priori vocabulary and written in Arabic script; influenced by Persian, Turkish and Arabic. |
| Enochian | late 16th century | John Dee, Edward Kelley | Purported Angelic language, possibly used in magic and occultism. | |
| Vendergood | early 20th century | William James Sidis | Based mainly on Latin and Greek, with influence from German, English and Romance languages. Contains eight moods, including Sidis's own strongeable, and has a base twelve number system. |
Constructed languages in Wikipedia
There is a version of Wikipedia in each of the following ten constructed languages. Eight of these languages are IALs, while Lojban and Toki Pona are engineered languages. Until 2005, there were also versions of Wikipedia in the constructed languages Toki Pona and Klingon, but these have been deleted. Toki Pona Wiki project continued independently under the name "Wikipesija", and re-opened in 2025.| Name | ISO/Link | Origin | Users worldwide | Active editors | Articles |
| Esperanto | eo | 1887 | 100,000 – 2,000,000 | [Esperanto Wikipedia|] | |
| Volapük | vo | 1880 | ? | [Volapük Wikipedia|] | |
| Ido | io | 1907 | c. 1000 | ||
| Interlingua | ia | 1951 | c. 1000 | ||
| Kotava | avk | 1978 | ? | ||
| Interlingue | ie | 1922 | ? | ||
| Lingua Franca Nova | lfn | 1998 | ? | ||
| Toki Pona | tok | 2001 | ? | ||
| Novial | nov | 1928 | ? | ||
| Lojban | jbo | 1987 | ? | ||
| Láadan | ldn | 1982 | ? | ||
| Interslavic | isv | 2011–2017 | 7,000 – 20,000 |