When we think of a universal and alternative language, the first that comes to mind is Esperanto, with millions of speakers worldwide. However, the concept of auxiliary languages is older than we imagine, and some even predate Esperanto by several decades. One of them is Solresol, created by Jean-François Sudre in the early 19th century. What makes it different? Instead of drawing inspiration from existing languages, Sudre designed Solresol from the seven musical notes, so it can be spoken by singing, playing an instrument, and even with signs.
Some languages invented by humanity in recent years have entertainment as their main goal, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Quenya or the Klingon language from Star Trek.
There are also many projects out there that do not seek to enrich a particular universe, but rather to enable real communication between two or more people. At the top of the list appears Esperanto, although despite its spread and the resources available for learning it, it faces tough competition from English.
But 60 years before Esperanto, a French violinist and music professor named Jean-François Sudre began working on something very special: a universal language based on music. Its name? "Solresol", which means "language".
Solresol, the universal language of music
In total, Solresol is composed of seven basic sound units, which are the seven musical notes we all know, and they function as phonemes. The most compact words in the Solresol language are formed by just one unit, and the maximum is five units.
Depending on the case, syllables can be accented (for example, an accent on the last syllable indicates the feminine), or present an extended pronunciation (used for the plural). The first syllables in a Solresol word establish a good part of its meaning, essentially a category.
Meanings of "Sol" at the beginning are linked to fields such as the arts and sciences in general, while "Solsol" specifies diseases, or something related to medicine.
Examples? Once again, "solresol" is "language", and "solsolredo" is "migraine", "neuralgia" or "headache". Another characteristic is inverting syllables to express antonyms. "Fala" is something "good" or "tasty", but "Lafa" is "bad".
As mentioned above, the representation of phonemes is compatible with musical instruments, gestures, whistles, singing, symbols, and even colored palettes or lights. Sudre worked for more than three decades on Solresol, and it reached its peak of popularity with the publication of the Grammaire du Solresol in 1902.
The death of its most fervent defenders (including the book's editor Boleslas Gajewski), the virtual prohibition of sign language teaching in France, and the advance of other languages almost condemned Solresol to extinction. However, today it has a small number of followers, who besides compiling information and maintaining a dictionary, have also requested a language code under ISO standards, which was denied for now.
