Balaibalan ( ota, باليبلن, Bâleybelen) 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 language
A philosophical language is any constructed language that is constructed from first principles. It is considered a type of engineered language. Philosophical languages were popular in Early Modern times, partly motivated by the goal of revising nor ...
s 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.
It may have been created by 14th century mystic
Fazlallah Astarabadi, founder of
Hurufism, or collectively by his followers in the 15th century,
or may have been
Muhyî-i Gülşenî, born in
Edirne, a member of the
Gülşenî sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
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
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
in Paris and in the
Princeton University Library.
Linguistic properties
Balaibalan is an
a priori language, written with the