The Language Vorlin (2006)

### Chapter 1: Introduction

Vorlin is a constructed human language (which might also be called an artificial language or a planned language, depending on your taste in terminology). The central idea of the project is vor, our word for “a compromise between technical and aesthetic criteria,” in other words, the avoidance of extremism in the design of things. It is an attempt to blend art with appropriate technology.

Vorlin is difficult to categorize. It is partly an “artlang” and partly an “engineered language.” A few people have viewed it as a potential “international auxiliary language.” The vocabulary has a posteriori elements and a priori elements. In some ways the syntax and morphology are familiar and in other ways they are unfamiliar. The syntax is somewhat optimized for computer processing but not obsessively so.

Vorlin will not appeal to everyone. Vorlin cannot satisfy people who seek an auxiliary language that has a “recognizable” vocabulary. Vorlin also cannot please those who believe an artlang must be attached to a fictional culture. Those who have an extreme dislike of ambiguity should look elsewhere for accomodations.

The Vorlin project has its own aesthetics and its own goals.

This document lists everything that is currently known about the phonology and grammar of Vorlin. The language was very unstable and subject to large changes in the 1989-1998 period. If you compare this version to the 1999 version, you will see that the situation is more stable now. Most of the changes between 1999 and 2006 involve a few derivational affixes which have been modified in an effort to make the language more consistent and more pleasant-sounding. A summary of significant changes is available.

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