Musical languages are

constructed languages A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...

based on

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

al sounds, which tend to incorporate articulation. Unlike

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

s, focused on stress, and

whistled language Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over ...

s, focused on pitch bends, musical languages distinguish pitches or rhythms. Whistled languages are dependent on an underlying spoken languages and are used in various cultures as a means for communication over distance, or as secret codes. The mystical concept of a

language of the birds In Abrahamic and European mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by bird ...

tries to connect the two categories, since some authors of musical ''a priori'' languages have speculated about a mystical or primeval origin of the whistled languages.

Constructed musical languages

There are only a few language families as of now such as the Solresol language family,

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ...

language family, and Nibuzigu language family. The Solresol family is a family of

a posteriori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...

languages (usually English) where a sequence of 7 notes of the western C-Major scale or the 12 tone chromatic scale are used as phonemes. *Domila *Eaiea *Sarus *

Solresol Solresol (Solfège: Sol- Re- Sol), originally called Langue universelle and then Langue musicale universelle, is a constructed language devised by François Sudre, beginning in 1827. His major book on it, ''Langue Musicale Universelle'', was pu ...

Moss (language) Moss is a musical language designed by composer Jackson Moore. It has a phonology based on elementary melodic distinctions, and a simple lexicon and grammar inspired by pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means o ...

is a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

built out of melodic shapes. The Nibuzigu family *Nibuzigu

Kobaïan Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the cou ...

is a language constructed by Christian Vander of the band

Magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natura ...

, which uses elements of Slavic and Germanic languages, but is based primarily on 'sonorities, not on applied meanings'. MacDonald, Ian (1975). "An Irresistible Life Force". Ork Alarm!. Archived from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2009

Musically influenced languages

*Hymmnos

In fiction

Voyage to Faremido ''Voyage to Faremido'' (Hungarian: ''Utazás Faremidóba'', 1916) is a utopian-satirical novel by Frigyes Karinthy. Written as a further adventure of Lemuel Gulliver of ''Gulliver's Travels'', it recounts the story of a World War I pilot who cr ...

In Film and other Media

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...

References

External links