Linguistic typology: analytic, SVO
Language family: constructed
1817 - Solresol is first developed
1866 - the first book about the language is published
Solresol was invented by François Sudre, a musician, composer, and music teacher. He called it la langue musicale universelle (the international musical language) or Solrésol, which in Solresol means “language, idiom, dialect, linguistics or philology”.
Sudre hoped Solresol would be used to facilitate international communication and deliberately made the language simple, so it would be easy to learn, and unlike any natural language, to avoid giving an advantage to any particular group of people.
Solresol was the first artificial language to be taken seriously as an interlanguage. It is also the first and only musically-based interlanguage, or at least the only one to make any headway.
Solresol has seven syllables based on the Western musical scale: do re mi fa sol la si. The total number of words is 2,660: 7 words with one syllable, 49 with two syllables, 336 with three syllables, and 2,268 with four syllables.
Writing system and pronunciation
Solresol has several written forms:
Using the Latin alphabet: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si
Using the Latin alphabet without the vowels (except the -o- of sol to distinguish it from si): d, r, m, f, so, l, s
As numerals: 1 (do), 2 (re), 3 (mi), 4 (fa), 5 (sol), 6 (la), 7 (si)
As notes on a musical scale of just three lines:
Using the Solresol stenographic script invented by Vincent Gajewski:
Solresol can also be represented by the seven colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), by manual signs, with different colored flags, or by painting.
Here are some sample words in the stenographic script:
Double syllables are indicated with a line through them.
Many words in Solresol are grouped according to their first syllable:
do = physical and moral properties of people, their intellectual faculties and qualities, and food, e.g. doredomi (body), domilafa (reason, sense), dofamisol (wisdom), dolamisi (to eat), dolasoldo (meat)
re = things in the home, housework, and family, e.g. redoredo (clothes), remifala (house, home), remisolla (room), resolmire (to sweep, broom), residosol (family)
mi = actions and flaws, e.g. midosolfa (to complain), mifadore (character, nature), milamido (to talk nonsense), milarefa (to critcize)
fa = country, travel, war, and the navy, e.g. fadoremi (countryside), fadomido (mountain, hill), fadofasol (tree), famidomi (soldier), fasisolfa (road), fasidore (to travel)
sol = fine arts and sciences, e.g. soldoremi (theatre), soldomido (opera), solsifasol (to invent, create), solsidofa (novel, story)
la = industry and commerce, e.g. ladoremi (to manufacture, make, factory), ladomifa (workship, studio), larelado (accounting), lamiresol (trade)
si = city, goverment, and administration, e.g. sidoredo (city, town), sodofasi (market), siresire (politics)
Nouns have two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). Feminine words (for female beings) are indicated by accenting the final vowel of a word. In writing this can be indicated with an accent: domifado = man, domifadō = woman. Accenting the final vowel also indicates the plural.
Accents are also used to indicate the category of word. They are not normally indicated in writing but can be added as a macron, acute, or circumflex. When singing or playing Solresol on an instrument, accented syllables are given two beats.
unaccented = verb, e.g. solremifa = to sing
accented first syllable = abstract noun, e.g. sōlremifa = song
accented second syllable = agent/doer, e.g. solrēmifa = singer
accented penultimate syllable = adjective, e.g. solremīfa = song-like
accented final syllable = adverb (or feminine/plural), e.g. solremifā = singingly, tunefully; sisol = Mr. — sisōl = Mrs.; dore = I, me — dorē = we, us
Some words form their opposites by reversing the syllables. For example:
misol = well, good — solmi = wrong, evil
fala = good, tasty — lafa = bad
fasi = much, very — sifa = little, scarely
solla = always — lasol = never
solsi = to go up, climb — sisol = to descend
solsifa = to laugh — fasisol = to cry
simila = ease — lamisi = difficulty
doladomi = to accept, consent — midolado = to refuse, reject
dola = one, someone — lado = nothing, zero, nobody
simi = good morning/afternoon, hello — misi = good evening/night
dore = I, me, we — redo = my, mine
Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, and aspect. Tenses are indicated as follows:
dodo = imperfect/pluperfect, e.g. dore dodo domilado (I was speaking/had spoken)
rere = simple past, e.g. dore rere domilado (I spoke)
mimi = future/future perfect, e.g. dore mimi domilado (I will speak / will have spoken)
fafa = conditional/past conditional, e.g. dore fafa domilado (I would speak / would have spoken)
solsol = imperative, e.g. solsol domilado (speak!)
lala = present participle, e.g. lala domilado (speaking)
sisi = past participle, e.g. sisi domilado (spoken)
