auxlang

plural auxlangs

1. A constructed auxiliary language.

   One of the most successful auxlangs is Esperanto, which has native speakers.

   5 more examples

   A distinction is usually made between auxiliary languages (auxlangs), designed with international communication as a deliberate goal, and “conlangs,” usually constructed for other purposes. (The Elvish languages showcased by Tolkien[…]and the Klingon language[…]are conlangs rather than auxlangs.)

   2000, Suzette Haden Elgin, The Language Imperative, page 195

   Volapük was the first auxlang to develop a community of speakers, after its launch in 1879 by Schleyer (Eco, 1993).

   2005, Santiago Posteguillo et al., Language @t Work: Language Learning, Discourse And Translation Studies In Internet, page 48

   Since at least the 17th century (and quite probably before that), various people have created artificially constructed languages (or conlangs), for the most part in order to offer humanity a neutral, easily mastered and logical means of interethnic communication (an auxlang)

   2006, Mikael Parkvall, Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know You Didn't Know about Language and Languages, page 129

   The second was composed of those who wanted to talk about an international auxiliary language for the real world (the auxlangers). The auxlang group included a few devoted Esperantists and a larger group[…].

   2006, William Allison Shimer, The American Scholar, volume 75, page 99

   Other auxlangs of this period include Joseph Schipfer’s Communicationssprache (1839), a simplified version of French; Jean Pirro’s Universalglot (1868), one of the first fully developed auxlangs to integrate linguistic features from multiple languages; and Johann Martin Schleyer’s Volapük (1880), which was the most successful auxlang until Esperanto supplanted it.

   2026 June 28 (last accessed), Nathan Sanders, “A primer on constructed languages”, in University of Toronto, archived from the original on 01 Nov 2025, page 7

   Synonyms: auxiliary language, international auxiliary language