Lingua Ignota
Encyclopedia
A Lingua Ignota was described by the 12th century abbess
of Rupertsberg, Hildegard of Bingen
, who apparently used it for mystical purposes. To write it, she used an alphabet of 23 letters, the litterae ignotae.
She partially described the language in a work titled Lingua Ignota per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata, which survived in two manuscripts, both dating to ca. 1200, the Wiesbaden Codex
and a Berlin MS. The text is a glossary
of 1011 words in Lingua Ignota, with glosses mostly in Latin
, sometimes in German
; the words appear to be a priori coinages, mostly nouns with a few adjectives. Grammatically it appears to be a partial relexification
of Latin, that is, a language formed by substituting new vocabulary into an existing grammar.
The purpose of Lingua Ignota is unknown; nor do we know who besides its creator was familiar with it. In the 19th century some believed that Hildegard intended her language to be an ideal, universal language
. However, nowadays it is generally assumed that Lingua Ignota was devised as a secret language; like Hildegard's "unheard music", it would have come to her by divine inspiration. Inasmuch as the language was constructed by Hildegard, it may be considered one of the earliest known constructed language
s.
In a letter to Hildegard, her friend and provost Wolmarus, fearing that Hildegard would soon die, asks ubi
tunc vox inauditae melodiae? et vox inauditae linguae? (Descemet, p. 346; "where, then, the voice of the unheard melody? And the voice of the unheard language?"), suggesting that the existence of Hildegard's language was known, but there were no initiates that would have preserved its knowledge after her death.
These two sentences are written mostly in Latin with five key words in Lingua Ignota; as only one of these is unambiguously found in the glossary (loifol "people"), it is clear that the vocabulary was larger than 1011 words. (Higley 2007 finds probable correspondences for two other words.)
loifol "people" apparently is inflected in Latin, yielding loifol-um in congruence with stigmatum, the plural genitive of stigma.
Newman (1987) conjectures the translation
, Ualueria, listed among birds, and the gryphon
, Argumzio, a half-mammal, also listed among the birds).
The first 30 entries are (after Roth 1880):
Nominal composition may be observed in peueriz "father" : hilz-peueriz "stepfather", maiz "mother" : hilz-maiz "stepmother", and scirizin "son" : hilz-scifriz "stepson", as well as phazur : kulz-phazur. Suffixal derivation in peueriz "father", peuearrez "patriarch".
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
of Rupertsberg, Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen
Blessed Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and...
, who apparently used it for mystical purposes. To write it, she used an alphabet of 23 letters, the litterae ignotae.
She partially described the language in a work titled Lingua Ignota per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata, which survived in two manuscripts, both dating to ca. 1200, the Wiesbaden Codex
Wiesbaden Codex
The Wiesbaden Codex , Hs.2 of the Hessische Landesbibliothek, Wiesbaden, is a codex containing the collected works of Hildegard of Bingen. It is a giant codex, weighing 15 kg and 30 by 45 cm in size. It dates from ca. 1200, and was started at the end of her life or just after her death, at the...
and a Berlin MS. The text is a glossary
Glossary
A glossary, also known as an idioticon, vocabulary, or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms...
of 1011 words in Lingua Ignota, with glosses mostly in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, sometimes in German
Middle High German
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
; the words appear to be a priori coinages, mostly nouns with a few adjectives. Grammatically it appears to be a partial relexification
Relexification
Relexification is a term in linguistics used to describe the mechanism of language change by which one language replaces much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with that of another language, without drastic change to its grammar. It is principally used to describe pidgins, creoles,...
of Latin, that is, a language formed by substituting new vocabulary into an existing grammar.
The purpose of Lingua Ignota is unknown; nor do we know who besides its creator was familiar with it. In the 19th century some believed that Hildegard intended her language to be an ideal, universal language
Universal language
Universal language may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population. In some circles, it is a language said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike. It may be the ideal of an international auxiliary language...
. However, nowadays it is generally assumed that Lingua Ignota was devised as a secret language; like Hildegard's "unheard music", it would have come to her by divine inspiration. Inasmuch as the language was constructed by Hildegard, it may be considered one of the earliest known constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
s.
In a letter to Hildegard, her friend and provost Wolmarus, fearing that Hildegard would soon die, asks ubi
Ubi sunt
Ubi sunt is a phrase taken from the Latin Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?"...
tunc vox inauditae melodiae? et vox inauditae linguae? (Descemet, p. 346; "where, then, the voice of the unheard melody? And the voice of the unheard language?"), suggesting that the existence of Hildegard's language was known, but there were no initiates that would have preserved its knowledge after her death.
Sample text
The only extant text in the language is the following short passage:- O orzchis Ecclesia, armis divinis praecincta, et hyacinto ornata, tu es caldemia stigmatum loifolum et urbs scienciarum. O, o tu es etiam crizanta in alto sono, et es chorzta gemma.
These two sentences are written mostly in Latin with five key words in Lingua Ignota; as only one of these is unambiguously found in the glossary (loifol "people"), it is clear that the vocabulary was larger than 1011 words. (Higley 2007 finds probable correspondences for two other words.)
- "O orzchis Ecclesia, girded with divine arms, and adorned with hyacinth, you are the caldemia of the wounds of the loifol, and the city of sciences. O, o, you are the crizanta in high sound, and you are the chorzta gem."
loifol "people" apparently is inflected in Latin, yielding loifol-um in congruence with stigmatum, the plural genitive of stigma.
Newman (1987) conjectures the translation
- "O measureless Church, / girded with divine arms / and adorned with jacinth, / you are the fragrance of the wounds of nations / and the city of sciences. / O, o, and you are anointed / amid noble sound, / and you are a sparkling gem."
The glossary
The glossary is in a hierarchical order, first giving terms for God and angels, followed by terms for human beings and terms for family relationships, followed by terms for body-parts, illnesses, religious and worldly ranks, craftsmen, days, months, clothing, household implements, plants, and a few birds and insects. Terms for mammals are lacking (except for the batBat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
, Ualueria, listed among birds, and the gryphon
Gryphon
-Businesses:* Gryphon Airlines, an American-owned airline based in Vienna, Virginia* Gryphon Audio Designs, a Danish maker of audio components* Golden Gryphon Press, an American independent publishing company...
, Argumzio, a half-mammal, also listed among the birds).
The first 30 entries are (after Roth 1880):
- Aigonz: deus (God)
- Aieganz: angelus (angel)
- Zuuenz: sanctus (saint)
- Liuionz salvator (saviour)
- Diueliz: diabolus (devil)
- Ispariz: spiritus
- Inimois: homo (human being)
- Jur: vir (man)
- Vanix: femina (woman)
- Peuearrez: patriarcha
- Korzinthio: propheta
- Falschin: vatesVatesThe earliest Latin writers used vātēs to denote "prophets" and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil...
- Sonziz: apostolus
- Linschiol: martir
- Zanziuer: confessor
- Vrizoil: virgo (virgin)
- Jugiza: vidua (widow)
- Pangizo: penitens
- Kulzphazur: attavus (great-great-great-grandfather)
- Phazur: avus (grandfather)
- Peueriz: pater (father)
- Maiz: maler (sic, for mater, mother)
- Hilzpeueriz: nutricus (stepfather)
- Hilzmaiz: noverca (stepmother)
- Scirizin: filius (son)
- Hilzscifriz: privignus (stepson)
- Limzkil: infans (infant)
- Zains: puer (boy)
- Zunzial: iuvenis (youth)
- Bischiniz adolescens (adolescent)
Nominal composition may be observed in peueriz "father" : hilz-peueriz "stepfather", maiz "mother" : hilz-maiz "stepmother", and scirizin "son" : hilz-scifriz "stepson", as well as phazur : kulz-phazur. Suffixal derivation in peueriz "father", peuearrez "patriarch".
Editions
- Wilhelm GrimmWilhelm GrimmWilhelm Carl Grimm was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm.-Life and work:...
(1848), listing only the 291 glosses with German translations - Roth (1880), consisting of the 1011 glosses.
- Descemet, Analecta of Pitra (1882), listing only the 181 glosses giving the names of plants
- Portmann and Odermatt (1986)
- Higley (2007), the entire Riesencodex glossary, with additions from the Berlin MS, translations into English, and extensive commentary
See also
- GlossolaliaGlossolaliaGlossolalia or speaking in tongues is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables, often as part of religious practice. The significance of glossolalia has varied with time and place, with some considering it a part of a sacred language...
- Language of angelsLanguage of angelsLanguage of angels may refer to:*Enochian a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his seer Edward Kelley in the late 16th century....
- Artistic languageArtistic languageAn artistic language is a constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure. Unlike engineered languages or auxiliary languages, artistic languages usually have irregular grammar systems, much like natural languages. Many are designed within the context of fictional worlds, such as J. R. R....
- Philosophical languagePhilosophical languageA philosophical language is any constructed language that is constructed from first principles, like a logical language, but may entail a strong claim of absolute perfection or transcendent or even mystical truth rather than satisfaction of pragmatic goals...
Literature
- Traude Bollig / Ingrid Richter, Hildegard von Bingen, Heilwerden mit der Kraft ihrer Symbole, Aurum Verlag, ISBN 3-89901-006-X (an esoteric claim of decipherment of the litteraehttp://heilende-symbole.de/symbole/index.html)
- Jakob Grimm in: Haupt, Zeitschrift fur deutsch. Alterthum, VI, 321.
- Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation and Discussion by Sarah L. Higley. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
- Laurence Moulinier, "Un lexique trilingue du XIIe siècle : la lingua ignota de Hildegarde de Bingen", dans Lexiques bilingues dans les domaines philosophique et scientifique (Moyen Âge-Renaissance), Actes du colloque international organisé par l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes-Ive Section et l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie de l’Université Catholique de Louvain, Paris, 12-14 juin 1997, éd. J. Hamesse, D. Jacquart, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, p. 89-111. ISBN 2-503-51176-7
- Jonathan P. Green, « A new gloss on Hildegard of Bingen's Lingua ignota », Viator, 36, 2005, p. 217-234.
- Barbara Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).
- Marie-Louise Portmann and Alois Odermatt (eds.), Wörterbuch der unbekannten Sprache, Basel: Verlag Basler Hildegard-Gesellschaft (1986). ISBN 3-905143-18-6
- Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Roth, "Glossae Hildegardis", in: Elias Steinmeyer and Eduard Sievers eds., Die Althochdeutschen Glossen, vol. III. Zürich: Wiedmann, 1895, 1965, pp. 390-404.
- Jeffrey T. Schnapp, "Virgin's words : Hildegard of Bingen's Lingua Ignota and the Development of Imaginary Languages Ancient to Modern", Exemplaria, III, 2, 1991, pp. 267-298.
External links
- Langmaker profile of Lingua Ignota
- Eclecticify: Lingua Ignota: a partial English glossary of the Lingua Ignota by an amateur translator.