<p>For a lower-level kind of isomorphism: I have read a story in which an alien speaks a synthetic language, suited to its own vocal tract, into a machine that converts its speech phoneme-for-phoneme into a human language.</p>

<p>It could be a scene in Poul Anderson's <em>A Circus of Hells</em>, or not.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-09T23:41:08.417Z
2018-10-09T23:41:08.417Z
Anton Sherwood
<p>There is the term <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relexification" rel="noreferrer">relexification</a> meaning that the words of a given language are replaced by new words without changing the structure of the starting language. Relexification does not only occur in conlangs but also in natural languages.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-11T03:52:57.113Z
Note also that a conlang derived by relexifying a source language is generally referred to as a "relex".
Logan R. Kearsley
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-02-10T20:39:59.060Z
2018-09-05T13:19:46.027Z
2018-09-05T13:19:46.027Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>What I'm thinking is: if two conlangs have the same syntactical structure and can be translated by simply exchanging words while maintaining the same (or very similar) structure, is there are specific term for this scenario, and are there any examples for this? I'd imagine Lojban and Loglan would probably fit in this category as Lojban is, after all, a child project of Loglan. Are there any other examples of conlangs designed with identical (or very similar) syntactic features, and is there a name for this relationship?</p>

<terminology><language-structure><syntax>
Is there any concept of "isomorphic" constructed languages?
# Is there any concept of "isomorphic" constructed languages?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-02-10)

What I'm thinking is: if two conlangs have the same syntactical structure and can be translated by simply exchanging words while maintaining the same (or very similar) structure, is there are specific term for this scenario, and are there any examples for this? I'd imagine Lojban and Loglan would probably fit in this category as Lojban is, after all, a child project of Loglan. Are there any other examples of conlangs designed with identical (or very similar) syntactic features, and is there a name for this relationship?

**Tags:** terminology, language-structure, syntax

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-02-10. Score: 20 | Accepted answer

There is the term [relexification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relexification) meaning that the words of a given language are replaced by new words without changing the structure of the starting language. Relexification does not only occur in conlangs but also in natural languages.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Note also that a conlang derived by relexifying a source language is generally referred to as a "relex".  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2018-10-09. Score: 1

For a lower-level kind of isomorphism: I have read a story in which an alien speaks a synthetic language, suited to its own vocal tract, into a machine that converts its speech phoneme-for-phoneme into a human language.

It could be a scene in Poul Anderson's *A Circus of Hells*, or not.


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