لخّصلي

‏Every language has its flaws and limitations. Some people have been so frustrated with the imperfections of existing languages that they have actually tried to create better languages themselves! There have been more than 500 attempts at creating such languages. Each of these invented languages, complete with a vocabulary and grammar of its own, has had a specific goal. For example, some language inventors have wanted to invent a simple and easy-to-learn language, some have wanted to create a gender-neutral language, and some have wanted to make language more mathematical or scientific. While none of these invented languages has ever become widely spoken, there are a couple that have been learned and spoken by a surprisingly large number of people.

‏The invented language that has the most speakers is Esperanto. This language was created in 1887 by Ludvik Zamenhof, a Polish doctor. Zamenhof lived in an area populated by four different ethnic groups that spoke many different languages. There were a great number of problems between these groups. Zamenhof felt that the language difference between the groups was the root of the problems. This gave him the idea of creating a language that would not belong to any one country or culture, but instead, would belong equally to all people. The hope was that a neutral second language would break down language barriers and build a sense of equality and brotherhood between nations. The language which he created to fulfill this dream was called Esperanto, which means hope in the Esperanto language.

‏Because Zamenhof's goal was clearly a humanitarian one, he was not interested in making any money from Esperanto. He published a guide to speaking Esperanto, and gave up all rights of ownership to the guide. This way the guide could be freely circulated to all people interested in learning the language.

‏Zamenhof wanted as many people as possible to learn Esperanto, so he made the language extremely simple, with no irregularities or exceptions to the basic rules. For example, in Esperanto all nouns end with an -o. All nouns can be made plural by simply adding a -j. So the word for friend is amiko, and the plural is amikoj. All adjectives end with an -a. To create the opposite meaning, a speaker simply adds mal- to the beginning of the word. So, for example, the word for big is granda, and the word for small is malgranda. The rules for verbs are equally simple, with no irregular verbs and no conjugation.

‏For all Zamenhof's good intentions, Esperanto never became the unifying international language he had hoped it would become. People were not eager to spend time learning a new language which so few other people spoke. However, Esperanto has survived to this day and is spoken by at least 100,000 people around the world.

‏The second most successful invented language is called Klingon. Other than the fact that it is also an invented language,

‏it shares almost no similarities with Esperanto. Klingon, which was invented over 25 years ago, was not created with the noble intention of promoting the peaceful coexistence of people from different cultures. Instead, it is a trademarked invention of a major television studio. It was created in 1984 by a linguist named Marc Okrand for use in the Star Trek series. The characters who speak this language are the Klingon, a fictitious race of people from outer space. ...

‏•The Klingon, Dictionary, which is copyrighted by the television studio, has sold more than 300,000 copies, and has made quite a bit of money. Unlike Esperanto, Klingon is an extremely complicated language with complex grammar, making it التع ensely difficult language to learn. As a result, it is estimated that only a few thousand people
‏can speak Klingon

‏with any fluency. Yet interestingly, Okrand intentionally made Klingon difficult to learn. His goal for Klingon was almost the opposite of Zamenhof's goal for Esperanto. Okrand did not want many people to be able to speak Klingon fluently. On the contrary, Klingon was designed to be an exclusive language that could only be spoken by the most committed Star Trek fans.

‏DISCOVERY

‏The vast majority of invented languages have disappeared almost as soon as they were created. While the most successful invented languages, like Esperanto and Klingon, have caught the imagination of a community of people, these languages are spoken more as a novelty than as a practical, everyday language. The fact that no invented language has ever become widely spoken seems to tell us something: It is only languages that evolve naturally and slowly over time that have the power to spread, to continue, and to become part of our identity.