Portal:Constructed languages/Language of the month/January 2009

Ithkuil is a constructed human language marked by outstanding grammatical complexity and an innovative system of writing.

The language’s author, John Quijada, presents Ithkuil as a cross between an a priori philosophical language and a logical language designed to express deeper levels of human cognition overtly and clearly, yet briefly. The many examples from Quijada’s original grammar show that, in the general case, a message would take significantly longer to explicate in a natural language than in Ithkuil.

Quijada deems his creation to be too complex and rational a language to have developed “naturally”, yet a one usable for general conversation and literature. No person is hitherto known to be able to speak Ithkuil; Quijada, for one, does not. Find out more...