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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
'''Arjâm Vâks''' ("speech of the Aryâsas") is an imagined name given to a language constructed by the notable Indo-Europeanist August Schleicher (1821-1868), which is most notable as the original language of the fable ''Avis Akvâsas ka'' ("The Sheep and the Horses"). | '''Arjâm Vâks''' ("speech of the Aryâsas") or '''Sanvâks''' ("old speech") is an imagined name given to a language constructed by the notable Indo-Europeanist August Schleicher (1821-1868), which is most notable as the original language of the fable ''Avis Akvâsas ka'' ("The Sheep and the Horses"). | ||
Some justification must be made at the outset for including this language in an encyclopedia of constructed languages. It must be admitted that Schleicher had no intention of creating an artificial language; to the contrary, he believed that he was scientifically reconstructing the original Indo-European languages, ancestral to the languages on which his reconstruction was based. These were Sanskrit, Avestan ("Old Bactrian," in Schleicher's terminology), Greek, Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, Old Irish, Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian in Schleicher's terminology), Lithuanian, and Gothic. It will be observed that of the ten Indo-European branches for which records survive, only six are represented (Indo-Iranian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic). Hittite and Tocharian were entirely unknown to Schleicher. I am not sure why Armenian and Albanian were not considered; perhaps at the time their positions within the Indo-European family, and their distinctive characteristics, were too poorly known. | Some justification must be made at the outset for including this language in an encyclopedia of constructed languages. It must be admitted that Schleicher had no intention of creating an artificial language; to the contrary, he believed that he was scientifically reconstructing the original Indo-European languages, ancestral to the languages on which his reconstruction was based. These were Sanskrit, Avestan ("Old Bactrian," in Schleicher's terminology), Greek, Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, Old Irish, Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian in Schleicher's terminology), Lithuanian, and Gothic. It will be observed that of the ten Indo-European branches for which records survive, only six are represented (Indo-Iranian, Hellenic, Italic, Celtic, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic). Hittite and Tocharian were entirely unknown to Schleicher. I am not sure why Armenian and Albanian were not considered; perhaps at the time their positions within the Indo-European family, and their distinctive characteristics, were too poorly known. | ||