The second International Conference on Constructed Languages (I-CONlangs II, 2024) comes after a first edition in Torino in 2022 to offer a forum dedicated to multidisciplinary research on constructed languages.

The study of constructed languages is the site of a proliferation of ideas and innovations in the linguistic field, which challenge the human ability to provide new forms of linguistic expression, for wide-ranging purposes. This phenomenon is not only relevant in linguistics, but in many other disciplines in the human sciences, as well as in the arts and letters, and this extends far beyond academic circles. 

From the 19th century, international auxiliary languages have been one of the most fruitful sites for invention. Of all the languages that have been published, the Esperanto language is of particular interest here, insofar as the language gave rise to a new community of speakers (including native speakers) on a long period of time, a community which have developed its own culture and sociology, as well as its own history and literature. It seems relevant today to call for proposals about the Esperanto language, as a language and as a social and historical phenomenon, without actually excluding proposals on other international auxiliary languages that have played a role in the history of interlinguistics (such as Volapük, Ido, Occidental, Interlingua, etc.) or recently elaborated or even on other types of constructed languages.

Constructed languages are also playing an increasingly important role in our cultural environment through artistic and literary languages, fictional languages. Through their imagination, human beings invent languages to ground their fictional worlds and create a fictional ecosystem that is plausible within its own diegesis. We can find fictional languages in literature, cinema, arts, television or video games, where they are used to bring futuristic, exotic or fantastic civilisations to life. The international conference is open to proposals on these languages of the imagination, whatever the language or the approach (contrastive, sociological, geographical, artistic, etc.). We invite not only academic researchers to join us, but also the conlangers who wish to share their experience or/and their constructed language.

Finally, a site that favors an increased reflection on the language is that of the languages more recently elaborated for pedagogical, logical or experimental purposes. In line with the proto-languages that were reconstructed to test the phylogenetic hypotheses from the 19th century, we can find languages whose purposes are not so much to be used as to virtually test the Sapir-Whorf theory (ex. Loglan), to explore the possibilities of a linguistic contact (ex. Brithenig), or to push back the limits of polysemy (ex. Toki Pona). Some of those languages have sometimes a dual nature which label them both in experimental and artistic languages (ex. Láadan) or even auxiliary (ex. Sona). Considering the experimental applications of other constructed or natural languages (ex. the propaedeutic aspect of Esperanto) can also be relevant.

The creation of a constructed language may have various purposes, but their study reveals a common set of questions, which the I-CONLANG II 2024 intends to address. Here is a non-exhaustive list of research questions:

• The different purposes of constructed languages and the means used to achieve them;
• The various (or not)  linguistic resources used in the context of constructed languages;
• The specific constraints encountered in the creation and/or the use of a constructed language;
• The social and cultural implications of constructed languages;
• The project development on creating constructed languages as well as its symbolic, psychological, sociological and historical outcomes;
• The challenges and limitations of such languages;
• The differences or similarities between constructed languages and natural languages.

In order to reflect the diversity of constructed languages, the conference will be organised through three session of oral communications (in line with the Gnoli’s triangle):

• A session on auxiliary languages, especially Esperanto;
• A session on fictional languages (in literature, cinema, video games, etc.)
• A session on constructed languages with pedagogical, logical or experimental purposes.

An additional poster session will be organised to present the creation of new constructed languages, and we invite all conlangers to send us their proposal accordingly, whether they are students, researchers, or any person who works outside of the academic field.

Practical information:

Contact: icon2024@sciencesconf.org

Conference website: https://icon2024.sciencesconf.org/

Link for submissions: https://icon2024.sciencesconf.org/user/submissions

Extended deadline for proposals: 10 March 2024

Format of proposal (oral communication and/or poster): 1 page maximum (including bibliography)

Date and place of the conference: Orléans, France, July 2024, 4-5th

Duration of talk: 20mns of presentation and 10mns of discussion

Conference languages: French and English

Registration fee: 40€ for tenured staff, 20€ for non-tenured staff.

The Conference is organized by Laboratoire Ligérien de Linguistique (LLL - UMR 7270, Université d'Orléans, Université de Tours, BnF, CNRS).

Organizing Committee:

Guillaume Enguehard (Université d'Orléans, LLL)

Philippe Planchon (Université de Tours, LLL)

Alice Ray (Université d'Orléans, LLL) 

Scientific board:

Michael Adams (Université de l'Indiana), Paolo Albani (écrivain), Davide Astori (Université de Parme), Bettina Beinhoff (Université Anglia Ruskin), Simone Bettega (Université de Turin), Elisa Corino (Université de Turin), Natalia Dankova (Université du Québec en Outaouais), Pascal Dubourg-Glatigny (CNRS, EHESS), Guillaume Enguehard (Université d'Orléans), Sabine Fiedler (Université de Leipzig), Christopher Gledhill (Université de Paris), Federico Gobbo (Université d'Amsterdam), Grant Goodall (Université de Californie San Diego), Édouard Kloczko (traducteur), Ilona Koutny (Université de Poznań), Frédéric Landragin (CNRS, ENS), Xiaoliang Luo (Université Paris Cité), Chiara Meluzzi (Université de Milan), Roberto Merlo (Université de Turin), Sébastien Moret (Université de Lausanne), David J. Peterson (conlanger), Philippe Planchon (Université de Tours), Alice Ray (Université d'Orléans), Marine Verriest (Université de Namur), Marina Yaguello (Université Paris VII).

Select bibliography :

Adams Michael (ed.), From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages, Oxford University Press, 2011.

Albani Paolo et Buonarroti Berlinghiero, Dictionnaire des langues imaginaires, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2010.

Auroux Sylvain, « Les langues universelles », in S. Auroux (dir), Histoire des idées linguistiques, Tome 3, Bruxelles / Liège : Pierre Mardaga Editeur, 2000, pp. 377-396.

Barandovská-Frank Vĕra, « De nouveaux défis pour l'interlinguistique », Cahiers de l'ILSL, 61, 2019, p. 9-26.

Barnes Lawrie et Van Heerden Chantelle, « Virtual Languages in Science fiction and fantasy literature », Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa, 37:1, 2006, p. 102-117.

Blanke Detlev, « How not to reinvent the wheel... The essential scholarly literature in interlinguistics and esperantology », Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems, 13(2), 2015, p. 200-215.

Bobon Jean, « les pseudo-glossolalies ludiques et magiques : (Trois Langues Artificielles, d’origine Ludique, Chez Une Paraphrénique Hypomaniaque) », Langages, 91, 1988, p. 61–74

Burney Pierre, Les langues internationales, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1966.

Comrie Bernard, « Natural and Artificial International Languages: A Typologist's Assessment », Journal of Universal Language, 1(1), 1996, p. 35-55.

Decloquement Valentin, « Traduire l’atticisme : comment adapter en français une langue artificielle? », in La traduction épistémique : entre poésie et prose, Paris : Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2020, pp. 143-164.

Duličenko Aleksandr D., et Moret Sébastien, « Le marxisme et les projets de langue universelle du communisme », Cahiers du Centre de Linguistique et des Sciences du Langage, 14, 2003, 101-120.

Eco Umberto, La recherche de la langue parfaite dans la culture européenne, Paris : Seuil, 1994.

Fiedler Sabine, « English as a lingua franca − a native-culture-free code ? Language of communication vs language of identification », Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies, 5(3), 2011, p. 79-97.

Fiedler Sabine, « Planned languages and languages created for fantasy and science-fiction literature or films: A study on some points of contact », Jęzik Komunikacja Informacja / Language Communication Information, 14, 2019, p. 139-154.

Fiedler Sabine et Brosch Cyril R., Esperanto − Lingua Franca and Language Community, Amsterdam / Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2022.

Gobbo Federico, « Alan Turing creator of Artificial Languages » InKoj,3(2), p. 181-194, 2012.

Gobbo Federico, « Tolkien and language planning: imagined words for an imaginary world », in Creating Worlds through Languages, Athenaeum Edizioni Universitarie, pp. 91-106, 2019.

Gobbo Federico, « Coolification and Language Vitality: The Case of Esperanto » Languages,6(2), 93, 2021.

Jeandillou Jean-François, « Métadiscours et enseignement d’une langue artificielle », LINX, 36.1, 1997, 157-166

Koutny Ilona, « A typological description of Esperanto as a natural language », Jęzik Komunikacja Informacja / Language Communication Information, 10, 2015, p. 43-62.

Libert Alan Reed,Mixed artificial languages. München : Lincom Europa, 2003.

Marlaud Sarah, « Les langues artificielles sont-elles des langues ? Étude contrastive de l’espéranto et de la caractéristique universelle », Syntaxe & Sémantique, 14.1, 2013, p. 85-117.

Martinet André, « La Linguistique et les Langues Artificielles », Word : Journal of the International Linguistic Association, 2:1, 1946, p.37-47

Meyer Anna-Maria, « Slavic constructed languages in the internet age », Language Problems and Language Planning, 40(3), 2016, p. 287-315.

Moret Sébastien, « Autour des Langues dans l’Europe nouvelle Une réception de Meillet par les adeptes des langues artificielles », Histoire Epistémologie Langage, 41.2, 2019, p. 157-176.

Moret Sébastien, « D’un Vice Caché Vers Une Nouvelle Conception de La Langue: Les Langues Artificielles et La Linguistique », Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, 57, 2004, p. 7-21

Okrent Arika, In the Land of Invented Languages, New York : Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks, 2010.

Pereltsvaig Asya, « Esperanto Linguistics: State of the Art », Language Problems and Language Planning, 41(2), 2017, p. 168-191.

Peterson David J., The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building. London : Penguin books, 2015.

Piron Claude, Le défi des langues − Du gâchis au bon sens. Paris : L'Harmattan, 1994.

Porset Charles, « Notes sur les langues artificielles au XIXe siècle », Romantisme, 9.25, 1979, 179-189.

Punske Jeffrey et al. (eds), Language Invention in Linguistics Pedagogy, Oxford University Press, 2020.

Racault Jean-Michel, « La question des langues dans L’Utopie de Thomas More », Travaux & documents, 2005, 23.

Rosenfelder Mark, The Language Construction Kit, Chicago : Yonagu Books, 2010.

Sériot Patrick, « Colloque: “Les Langues Artificielles” (Veysonnaz, 17-18 Juin 2002) », Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, 57, 2004, p. 3-6

Slaughter Mary M., Universal languages and scientific taxonomy in the seventeenth century, Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Sokolovska Zorana,« Politique des langues : le débat sur l’espéranto au Conseil de l’Europe », Nouveaux cahiers d’allemand, vol. 35, no 4, 2017, p. 369-380.

Stria Ida, Towards a linguistic worldview for artificial languages. Thèse de doctorat, Université Adam-Mickiewicz de Poznań, Ed. Wydział Neofilologii UAM w Poznaniu, 2015.

Tonkin Humphrey, « Language planning and planned languages: How can planned languages inform language planning? » Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems, 13:2, 2015, p. 193-199.

Van Oostendorp Marc, « Constructed Language and Linguistic Theory », in K. Schubert (ed), Planned Languages: from concept to reality, Bruxelles : Vlekho, 2001, pp. 203-222.

Yaguello Marina, Les Langues imaginaires. Mythes, utopies, fantasmes, chimères et fictions linguistiques, Paris : Seuil, 2006.