Balaibalan
Oldest known constructed language
title: "Balaibalan" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["constructed-languages", "turkish-literature", "international-auxiliary-languages", "language-and-mysticism", "medieval-history-of-the-middle-east", "sufism"] description: "Oldest known constructed language" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaibalan" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Oldest known constructed language ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Balaibalan |
| nativename | باليبلن |
| altname | Bâleybelen |
| creator | Fazlallah Astarabadi or Muhyî-i Gülşenî |
| fam2 | Holy language |
| region | Turkey, Iran |
| speakers | none |
| familycolor | constructed language |
| created | 14th–16th century |
| script | Ottoman Turkish |
| iso3 | zba |
| glotto | bala1318 |
| glottorefname | Balaybalan |
| ietf | art-x-balaibal |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
|name=Balaibalan |nativename=باليبلن |altname=Bâleybelen |creator=Fazlallah Astarabadi or Muhyî-i Gülşenî |fam2=Holy language |region= Turkey, Iran |speakers= none |familycolor= constructed language |created= 14th–16th century |script= Ottoman Turkish |iso3=zba |glotto=bala1318 |glottorefname=Balaybalan |ietf=art-x-balaibal |notice=IPA
Balaibalan () is the oldest known constructed language.
History
Balaibalan is the only well-documented early constructed language that is not of European origin, and it is independent of the fashion for language construction that occurred in the Renaissance. In contrast to the philosophical languages which prevailed then, and the languages designed for facilitating worldwide communication or for use in literature or film most prominent today, Balaibalan was probably designed as a holy or poetic language for religious reasons, like Lingua Ignota and perhaps Damin. Balaibalan may also have been a secret language which was only known by an inner circle.
Balaibalan may have been created by 14th century mystic Fazlallah Astarabadi, founder of Hurufism, or collectively by his followers in the 15th century, or perhaps by Muhyî-i Gülşenî, born in Edirne, a member of the Gülşenî sufi order in Cairo; in any case, the elaboration of the language was a collective endeavour.
The sole documentary attestation of Bâleybelen is a dictionary, copies of which are to be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and in the Princeton University Library.
Linguistic properties
Balaibalan is an a priori language, written with the Ottoman alphabet (Arabic script). The grammar follows the lead of Persian, Turkish and Arabic; like Turkish, it is agglutinating. Much of the lexis appears wholly invented, but some words are borrowed from Arabic and the other source languages, and others can be traced back to words of the source languages in an indirect manner, via Sufi metaphor. For example:
- zba, the stem of the verb 'deliberate', is explained by the dictionary as being built out of the letters b, which indicates shared action between multiple people, and g, which indicates publicizing.
- zba 'origin' appears to be borrowed from Arabic ar, which means 'essence.'
- zba 'mouth' may reflect the Arabic name ar of the letter , whose shape is often compared in poetry to that of a mouth.
Notes
References
Sources
- A. Bausani, Geheim- und Universalsprachen: Entwicklung und Typologie. Stuttgart, 1970: Kohlhammer Verlag.
- A. Bausani, Le lingue inventate : linguaggi artificiali, linguaggi segreti, linguaggi universali - Roma : Ubaldini, 1974.
- F. Bergmann, Résumé d'études d'odontologie générale et du linguistique générale, Paris, 1875
- Silvestre DeSacy, Kitab asl al-maqasid wa fasl al marasid, Le capital des objets recherchés et le chapitre des choses attendues, ou Dictionnaire de l'idiome Balaïbalan. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale [Paris], 9: 365–396.
- E. Drezen, Historio de la Mondolingvo, Moskvo 1991: Progreso.
- Charles Häberl, Bālaybalan, in Encyclopædia Iranica, to appear. https://www.academia.edu/7245551/Balaybalan
- M. Koç, Bâleybelen: İlk Yapma Dil. Istanbul, 2005.
References
- "GOLŠANI, MOḤYI MOḤAMMAD".
- "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
- (1997). "Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East". BRILL.
- (2008). "BİLİM TARİHİNİN İLK YAPMA DİLİ BÂLEYBELEN". International Congress of Asian and North African Studies.
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