The First Family of Esperanto
L. L. Zamenhof may have invented Esperanto, but he didn't bring it to life alone. This is the story of the Zamenhof family and the first pioneers who transformed a…
Unlocking the Universe of Languages
L. L. Zamenhof may have invented Esperanto, but he didn't bring it to life alone. This is the story of the Zamenhof family and the first pioneers who transformed a…
Dive into the world of Blissymbols, a fascinating ideographic writing system designed as a universal language. Explore its logical grammar, where simple symbols for "house" and "protection" combine to create…
Imagine ordering a coffee using a flute or saying 'I love you' with a violin. This was the vision behind Solresol, a 19th-century language where words are built from the…
Explore the dramatic schism that split the world of logical languages in two. This post uncovers the story of Dr. James Cooke Brown's Loglan, its 'civil war', and the subsequent…
What if the letter 'S' looked like a hiss or 'P' was shaped by the lips? We delve into the Pasilalinic-sympathetic Alphabet, a 19th-century utopian project to create a universal…
Can you express any idea with only 120 words? Explore Toki Pona, a philosophical language designed for simplicity and mindfulness, and see how its minimalist grammar challenges our very ideas…
Did you know the Korean alphabet was secretly invented by a king to empower his people? Hangul, one of the world's most logical writing systems, was designed to mimic the…
We dissect the fascinating failures of constructed languages, focusing on VolapΓΌk, a language that attracted a million followers before its spectacular collapse. By examining its punishingly complex design, the creator's…
Before programmers write code, they often think in a unique hybrid language. Pseudocode acts as a linguistic bridge, translating the nuances of human logic into the structured steps a computer…
Grammatical gender is a core feature of Romance languages, making gender-neutral expression a complex puzzle. Yet, from the rise of 'elle' in Spanish to the inclusion of 'iel' in French…
Intimidated by the angular characters and unfamiliar sounds of Korean? You shouldn't be. Contrary to its complex appearance, the Korean alphabet, Hangul, is hailed as one of the most brilliant…
In the 1960s, a radical new alphabet for English was born, bankrolled by the will of playwright George Bernard Shaw. Designed to be perfectly logical and efficient, the Shavian alphabet…
Can you own a language? This very question was at the heart of a high-stakes lawsuit when Paramount sued the creators of a Star Trek fan film, claiming copyright over…
Why is Spanish the only major language to use inverted question marks (ΒΏ) and exclamation marks (Β‘)? This unique punctuation wasn't an organic evolution, but a deliberate, top-down rule introduced…
Ever wondered what your Sims are really saying? The iconic "Sul Sul" is more than just cute gibberish; it's the gateway to Simlish, a constructed language designed not for meaning,…
Born from the horrors of war, Blissymbols was a universal language designed for peace, built on pure logic. This post explores how this unique pictographic system combines simple shapes to…
Is your target language a "Lego" language or a "sculpture" language? This practical framework introduces language typology (isolating, agglutinative, fusional) to help you understand your language's fundamental design. By knowing…
While many alphabets are ancient, the N'Ko script was born in 1949 from one man's defiant response to colonial prejudice. Created by Solomana Kante, this ingenious alphabet is perfectly tailored…
We think of Python or Java as "computer languages," but they are fundamentally constructed languages built on core linguistic principles. This article explores the hidden grammar of code, from the…
This article explores the world of agglutinative languages like Turkish, Finnish, and Swahili, where long, complex words are built by snapping together morphemes like Lego bricks. We deconstruct a few…