artificial languages

special languages that, unlike natural languages, are constructed purposefully; they are used for performing certain functions of a natural language in data processing systems. There are two types of artificial languages: information languages and international auxiliary languages.

The idea for the creation of an international language arose in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of the gradually decreasing international role of Latin. The initial schemes were aimed mainly at the development of a rational language, free from the logical inconsistencies of living languages and based on the logical classification of concepts. Schemes imitating patterns and material of living languages also appeared later. The first such scheme was Volapük, which was created in 1880 by the German linguist J. Schleyer. Esperanto, the only artificial language to be used on a large scale and to attract active proponents of an international language, became the best-known artificial language. A considerable number of translated and even original literary works exists in Esperanto. Of the later artificial languages, the best known are Occidental (Interlingue), created by E. de Wahl (Estonia) in 1922; Novial, created by O. Jespersen (Denmark) in 1928; and Interlingua, created by the Italian mathematician G. Peano in 1908 and the International Auxiliary Language Association in New York under the direction of A. Gode in 1950.

Artificial international language schemes may be divided into the following groups according to their structure: (1) a priori languages, based on logical or empirical classifications of concepts (Ro and Solresol); (2) mixed languages, based partly on words borrowed from various languages and partly on artificially invented words (Volapük); and (3) languages constructed primarily on the basis of an international vocabulary (Esperanto, Ido, and Interlingua).