<p>Unknown language <em>and</em> unknown script is a very hard combination to draw any conclusions. Even with a substantial amount of text we are usually lost in making sense of that.</p>
<p>Things become a little bit better when we have some clues on the script like</p>
<ul>
<li>words are separated somehow</li>
<li>we know the principle of the script (alphabetic, syllabary, ideographic)</li>
</ul>
<p>In this case we can try some statistical methods on things like word frequency and word length (does the language follow Zipf's law?), trying to identify morphemes, especially inflectional ones, trying to infer syntactical features, and compare that to natural languages.</p>
<p>But, unless the language is very schematic and unnatural in its construction, we will probably be unable to give a decisive answer to the question natural or constructed.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-22T09:52:17.870Z
2022-05-22T09:52:17.870Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>Imagine you get access to a rather long book for which the following is true:</p>
<ul>
<li>It is written in an unknown language with an unknown script.</li>
<li>We can't rely for whatever reason on the fact that the language of the book is not in <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ethnologue</a>.</li>
<li>The book came with no translation, and no known dictionary of the language exists.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Given all the above is there a way to say if the language of the book natural or constructed?</strong> How should one approach determining this based only on the content of the book?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-14T15:43:42.863Z
Do we know that the book is written in a language at all, and not in a secret code or being an elaborated hoax? The Voynich manuscript is such kind of a riddle.
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-14T15:54:13.187Z
You may find this question and its answers inspiring: https://conlang.stackexchange.com/q/42/142
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-22T06:28:37.497Z
@jk-ReinstateMonica yes, the difference between this question and Voynich manuscript is that we know that it is a language, not a cypher/hoax.
Maksim
<naturalism>
How to know if a language is constructed or natural?
# How to know if a language is constructed or natural?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-05-14)

Imagine you get access to a rather long book for which the following is true:

* It is written in an unknown language with an unknown script.
* We can't rely for whatever reason on the fact that the language of the book is not in [Ethnologue](https://www.ethnologue.com).
* The book came with no translation, and no known dictionary of the language exists.

**Given all the above is there a way to say if the language of the book natural or constructed?** How should one approach determining this based only on the content of the book?

**Tags:** naturalism
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do we know that the book is written in a language at all, and not in a secret code or being an elaborated hoax? The Voynich manuscript is such kind of a riddle.  
> **username_1**: You may find this question and its answers inspiring: https://conlang.stackexchange.com/q/42/142  
> **username_0**: @jk-ReinstateMonica yes, the difference between this question and Voynich manuscript is that we know that it is a language, not a cypher/hoax.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-05-22. Score: 2

Unknown language *and* unknown script is a very hard combination to draw any conclusions. Even with a substantial amount of text we are usually lost in making sense of that.

Things become a little bit better when we have some clues on the script like

* words are separated somehow
* we know the principle of the script (alphabetic, syllabary, ideographic)

In this case we can try some statistical methods on things like word frequency and word length (does the language follow Zipf's law?), trying to identify morphemes, especially inflectional ones, trying to infer syntactical features, and compare that to natural languages.

But, unless the language is very schematic and unnatural in its construction, we will probably be unable to give a decisive answer to the question natural or constructed.


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