conlangs1-1  Exercise 2: The Origin Test
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Test: was the language put together on purpose, by named people, before it
had speakers?

  (a) Modern Hebrew      No. It was revived from an existing language, with
                         new words added, not designed from scratch.
  (b) Esperanto          Yes. Zamenhof published its sounds, grammar and
                         starting vocabulary in 1887.
  (c) Standard German    No. It is a natural language, although spelling and
                         usage are standardised.
  (d) The children's     Yes, in the sense of the test. Named people made it
      secret language    up on purpose before it had speakers, though it is
                         tiny and unlikely to be a complete language.
  (e) Klingon            Yes. Marc Okrand designed it for the Star Trek
                         films, from 1984 onwards.

Note on (d): the origin test says what a conlang is, not how big or complete
it must be. Part of the work of the course is deciding what makes a
conlang a full language, which Chapters 8 to 12 return to.