Talossan language
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The Talossan language (El Glheþ Talossán) is a constructed language created by R. Ben Madison for the micronation he founded, The Kingdom of Talossa.
Talossan is a Gallo-Romance language, inspired by French, Provençal and Occitan, and very naturalistic (with quite a few irregularities). In an effort to create a kind of "national mythology" for his micronation, Madison discovered in 1985 that one of the Berber sub-tribes of Morocco was called the Talesinnt, and decided that Talossans were inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers. This resulted in the Talossan language being inspired by Berber languages. More recently however, words are derived from Romance roots and given a French/Provençal feeling to them (some see a Romanian influence as well), but there is no one set of rules for derivation through which every word can be predicted. The word "Talossa" itself is not Romance, but Finno-Ugric in origin: it comes from the Finnish word for "inside the house" (Talossa began in Madison's bedroom.).
Talossan is the best-known example of the micronational language genre of conlang. It's spoken in the micronation of Talossa (El Regipäts Talossán), a "kingdom" (really an oligarchy) with its own parliament and a bicameral legislature, founded by Madison on December 26, 1979. Prospective citizens must pass a test on Talossan history, purchase at least 2 of the 17 books on matters Talossan offered online, submit an essay called "What Talossa Means to Me" and be approved by both houses in order to join as a citizen of Talossa. Although the speakers of Talossan were originally all united as the Kingdom of Talossa, a breakaway group called the Republic of Talossa formed on June 1, 2004 as members rebelled. Talossa's members tend towards the left; a resolution declaring Wal-Mart to be a "fascist state" zoomed through the legislature to pass.
Talossan is one of the best-known artlangs on the Internet. It garners perennial interest and respect from online conlangers and conlang aficionados. Of particular interest to them is its large vocabulary -- with over 28,000 words in its official dictionary, it is one of the most detailed fictional languages ever invented. A principal weakness argued to tarnish the language is that it has no fictional derivation from Latin, with forms having been invented arbitrarily rather than regularly.
External links
- The Talossan Language (http://my.execpc.com/~talossa/glhetg.html)
- The Talossan-Language project (http://www.talossan-language.com)