Ranzgia, Gauschin, Dunazz

September 30, 2013 9:13 AM

Here are a glossary and alphabet for the Lingua Ignota, the secret language created by Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century abbess, seer, doctor, and composer.
posted by Iridic (6 comments total)

Fascinating, thanks for the post! (Am I missing something, or does your "alphabet" link not contain an alphabet? Doesn't matter, because the Wikipedia Lingua Ignota article does, but I'm curious.)
posted by languagehat at 10:26 AM on September 30, 2013

Yeah, the alphabet link seems mistaken.

Had no idea she did this, much less "the first known artificial language"!

Out of curiosity, I looked up woman (vanix, suggestive of vanitas) and man (jur, Latin for "law"). Was hoping for a pair of words less patriarchal-sounding. :(
posted by IAmBroom at 10:36 AM on September 30, 2013

Curious - there was an image when I previewed the link.
posted by Iridic at 10:49 AM on September 30, 2013

O *ORZCHIS* Ecclesia, armis divinis praecincta, et hyacinto ornata, tu es *CALDEMIA* stigmatum *LOIFOLUM* et urbs scienciarum. O, o tu es etiam *CRIZANTA* in alto sono, et es *CHORZTA* gemma.

Orz are here now, but almost not yet.
posted by Nomyte at 11:20 AM on September 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Bookmarking this for the next alphabet thread.
posted by Kabanos at 12:08 PM on September 30, 2013

I didn't think Hildegarde of Bingen could be any cooler than I already thought she was. I was wrong.
posted by jb at 6:32 PM on September 30, 2013