Portal:Constructed languages/Language of the month/January 2011

Talossan flag

The Talossan language (El Glheþ Talossan) is a constructed language created by R. Ben Madison in 1980 for the micronation he founded, the Kingdom of Talossa. Talossan is the best-known example of the micronational language genre of conlang. The language is spoken and used in the Kingdom of Talossa (El Regipäts Talossan), a "constitutional monarchy" with its own parliament and a bicameral legislature, founded by Madison on December 26, 1979, and also in the Talossan Republic (La Repúblicâ Talossán), formed in 2004 by ex-citizens of the Kingdom.

Talossan is one of the best-known artistic languages on the Internet. It garners perennial interest and respect from online conlangers and conlang aficionados. Of particular interest to them is its large vocabulary—with over 28,000 words in its official dictionary, it is one of the most detailed fictional languages ever invented.

The language is overseen by the Comità per l'Útzil del Glheþ (CÚG; the Committee for the Use of the Language), a group formed in the Kingdom of Talossa by Madison in the 1980s. This group periodically issues Arestadas (reformations) which describe and document changes in the usage of the language, and to the vocabulary. The Kingdom and the CÚG maintain extensive Webpages for language information, research, and online translation to and from English. Find out more...