Artificial Languages

There have been many attempts to create languages for use by the whole world. Some have been too needlessly complex, such as the briefly successful Volapük; others have been rather delightfully silly, such as Solresol, based on musical pitches. But Esperanto, a kind of streamlined Romance language, has had some success since its creation in 1887. Sign languages for the deaf are also artificial languages, but genuine ones, with grammar, nuance, and dialects, even created anew by deaf children if they are exposed to random collections of creative gesticulations.

Creoles are new languages that were created largely unconsciously, but many languages have been created deliberately. These languages, whether they succeed or pass away after a brief existence, are one more part of the natural history of language.