Lingua Philosophica
Lingua philosophica ("the philosophical language") is a very early constructed language invented by George Dalgarno (c. 1626-1687), a Scottish schoolteacher, published by him in his Ars Signorum ("Art of Signs"), a lengthy essay published in 1661 which both attempted to set out the philosophical basis of language, as Dalgarno perceived it, and to sketch (in some detail) a constructed language that would, ideally, represent each idea by a word, related ideas by related words, and be sufficiently rational to train its learners' minds in philosophical rigor.
Whether or not Dalgarno succeeded at this task, his Lingua Philosophica is one of the earliest fully functional constructed languages, and most likely the earliest in Europe. It consists of:
- A lengthy list of roots corresponding to what Dalgarno believed to be basic linguistic concepts or ideas.
- A much briefer grammatical apparatus (chiefly verbal and adjectival inflexional suffixes) which could be used with these roots.
- A "Lexicon" of 1370 Latin words glossed in Lingua Philosophica, often by compounding existing roots
- A set of writings, primarily translations, in Lingua Philosophica. These include:
- A foreword addressed to King Charles II.
- The Lord's Prayer in Lingua Philosophica.
- A translation of the first chapter of Genesis.
- Translations of the first five Psalms.
- Translations of two short Fables of Æsop.
There are also several example sentences given in the main body of the Ars Signorum.
Sounds
Vowels
i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u[1] Diphthongs: ai, ei, ɔi
Consonants
| Labials | Coronals | Palatas | Velars | |
| Voiceless stops | p | t | k | |
| Voiced stops | b | d | g | |
| Nasals | m | n | ŋ[2] | |
| Voiceless fricatives | f[3] | s | ʃ | |
| Voiced fricatives | v | |||
| Approximants | l, r |
Phonology
As an artificial language with no internal history and no intent of mimicking a natural language, there is little in the way of phonology in Lingua Philosophica; by and large, underlying and surface realizations are identical. Nonetheless, there are a few "phonological rules":
- The vowel /i/ is inserted between a morpheme ending in a consonant and a following morpheme beginning with a vowel.
- The vowel /i/ is inserted following a double consonant at the end of a word.
- The consonant /s/ is inserted between a morpheme ending in a vowel and a following morpheme beginning with a vowel.
Morphology
The morphology of Lingua Philosophica is largely concatenative, consisting of the addition of suffixes (and some prefixes). Nonetheless, there are some exceptions:
Plurals
The plurals of nouns and pronouns are formed by doubling a final consonant and adding i — which, by the intent of the creator, is solely a supporting vowel. as "star," pl. assi "stars" nim "water," pl. nimmi "waters" kanel "king," pl. kanelli "kings" lal "I," pl. lalli "we"
If the word is a polysyllable ending with a vowel, only the last consonant is doubled, without the addition of i: gomu "light," pl. gommu "lights"
If the word is a monosyllable ending with a vowel, the consonant s is added before i, and is doubled: fυ "buttock," pl. fυssi "buttocks."
- ^ These are actually represented by the symbols i, e, η, a, o, υ, u. This is an interpretation of Dalgarno's somewhat obscurely expressed intent, as he may have intended a symmetrical 7-vowel system.
- ^ Represented by the letter f. It is unclear whether it was actually intended to be pronounced [f]; it was, however, intended to fill the slot of a velar nasal.
- ^ See ŋ above