8thOctober, 2018

Artificial languages

The subject of artificial languages is a difficult yet interesting one. It is so, because the
majority of “serious” linguists do not see artificial languages as a real area of linguistics, since
they believe that you can’t have linguistics of an artificial language.
An interesting question arises from the study of artificial languages. Why do so many people
dedicate so much work to attempt to create a language by making it more orderly, more rational,
less burdened with inconsistencies and irregularities?

There are hundreds of artificial languages, and some may have already failed.
Nonetheless, there is some logic in creating a new and improved language. For thousands of
years we have had to deal with words that mean more than one thing, with idioms, with
exceptions to every grammatical rule, misunderstandings, irregular verbs, etc. And while most of
us don’t mind, there are others that want to make the world a better place through language.

On the other hand, there will always be some people that wouldn’t want to change the
language spoken in their homeland for anything in the world. Their reason is simple, yet
convincing: the language spoken by their ancestors is the language they want to speak on a daily
basis. This puts us in another position, considering the cultural background regarding the
formation of a language.

Taking into consideration all the ideas stated in this essay, I wouldn’t support the creation
of an artificial language. I know that a creation of a language is time consuming, but I also know
all the sacrifices that have been made to obtain the language spoken by us today. Every nation
has to appreciate that and respect all the efforts their elders put in making such beautiful
languages.