The first conlang (was: [Conlangs-Conf] Press release)

Joe wrote:
> taliesin the storyteller wrote:
[snip]
>>> [..] and many thousands of languages that have been created since the
>>> first was made in 1150 AD.
>>>
>>                    ^^^^^^^
>> It is the first we know *of*, there might have been older, lost conlangs.
>>
I am certain there were   :)


>
> Don't forget Damin, which is a Conlang whose age is completely unknown.
Indeed not. Also we have bits of fictional languages in Aristophanes'
comedies of the 5th cent BCE (e.g. Pseudartabas in 'The Acharnians'
speaks a fictional foreign language; also we find a sample of bird
language in the comedy The Birds, and a short sample of frog language in
The Frogs). I suspect the latter two were not developed, but how far the
first was developed we don't know.

I would guess that the creation of fictional languages, or conlanging,
is probably almost as old as speech itself. IMO saying that Lingua
Ignota (1150 CE) is the first conlang is on par with those who say that
Sumerian is the oldest language.

--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
"A mind which thinks at its own expense will always
interfere with language."         J.G. Hamann, 1760

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