Category:Philosophical conlangs

From Langmaker

A philosophical language (also known as categorical language) is one built on a philosophical, or taxonomic, structure. Philosophical languages have close ties to logical languages, and both can be qualified as engineered languages, or engelangs. Most conlangs created in the 17th century fall in this category; more recent examples include Ro. Many philosophical languages attempt to rigorously structure vocabulary based on a series of categories, so that the make-up of the word reflects its meaning.

A common strategy in such languages is to assign categories to phonemes and positions in a word that become more specific the further one gets into the word. For example, a language may designate the initial phoneme /k/ for tools or devices. Then it might specify that a following /o/ makes it concern music so /ko/ means "musical instrument". Following consonants may be used to specify whether it is percussion, wind, et al. This approach may unintentionally come close to oligosynthesis, but tends to run the risk of confusion as words with similar meanings sound similar and are often distinguished only by one or two phonemes.

This is a traditional meaning of the name "philosophical language". Some apply the term to languages with grammars and vocabularies based on a philosophical idea (such as Taoism, feminism or socialism), but this usage should be avoided.