-------------------------------------------------------- The artificial language Solresol -------------------------------------------------------- From the CONLANG mailing list: ---------- Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 15:08:55 MDT From: "Martin R. Bartels" Subject: Solresol Does anyone know where a description of Solresol in either Esperanto or English (or both would be best - so I dream) of "Solresol" is available? For anyone totally unfamiliar with this planned language, it's Jean-Franc,ois Sudre's "Langue Musicale Universelle" (Solresol) - a language based on music. It is briefly mentioned in David Richardson's "Esperanto: Learning and Using the International Language" (p.27), and Mario Pei's booklet "Wanted: A World Language" (p.11-12), as well as others, I'm sure. Quoting from the latter source: The early 19th century, for instance, saw Jean-Francois Sudre's "Langue Musicale Universelle", or Solresol, which was based on the international names of the musical notes, with all words formed out of combinations of the syllables "do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si [sic?]". Statistically, these combinations yield seven one-syllable words, 49 of two syllables, 336 of three, 2,268 of four, 9,072 of five, for a total of 11,732 primary words, a respectable vocabulary in any language. Shifts of stress from one syllable to another yielded additional words and separate grammatical forms. The language could be sung, played, or hummed, as well as spoken. It could be written as music. It could be expressed in taps, or even colors. Solresol gained wide acceptance, and was sponsored by such figures as Victor Hugo, Lamartine, von Humboldt, and Napoleon III. But it became, so to speak, extinct in the early years of our century. This is as much as I know about Solresol, but I would like to know more - not really on any practical level (as with Esperanto, and possibly Lojban), but I really would like to know how this language was recorded in so many media, and perhaps someday I'd like to try to compose some music "which says something." Any information would be appreciated, and can be sent to me directly at or posted if the interest seems general enough. Thanks everyone! ---Marty ---------- From: (Mark E. Shoulson) shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 15:05:47 -0400 Subject: Solresol I, too, have been looking high and low for anything that would actually give me any insight into Solresol, but it doesn't seem all that easy. I've pretty much given up hope of finding anything in English; I'd probably settle for French and this point and do what I could to understand it (Rick H., you still out there? Any pointers? I'm positive I've asked this already, but I don't seem to have a good answer. hey, I just found something that Eric Floehr posted here back in October 1991, which he got out of The Artificial Language Movement by Andrew Large; I'll try to repost it. It's still not enough. Any language this unusual makes me itch to see it! ~mark P.S. Wait! I found the pointers Rick H. sent me last August. Not that they'll be easy to track down... To: shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu Subject: stuff From: jwt!bbs-hrick@peora.sdc.ccur.com (Rick Harrison) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 13:50:15 EDT Organization: The Matrix Solresol -------- Gajewski, Boleslas Grammaire du Solresol, ou langue universelle de Fr. Sudre Paris: 1902 (44 p.) Sudre, Jean Francois (1798-1866) Langue musicale universelle Paris: 1866 (480+ p.) PM 8008 .S94 also described in: Couturat, Louis & Leau, Leopold Histoire de la langue universelle pp. 33-39 Good luck! ---------- From: hrick@gate.net (Rick Harrison) Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 08:55:32 -0500 Subject: CONLANG: Solresol - any data? From time to time over the years people have posted queries about Solresol, or promises to dig up the original documentation and post some data to this list. Does anyone have any data at all about Solresol, apart from the brief description in Couturat & Leau (which is repeated by Dulichenko and by Large) - anything would be helpful, a paragraph of Solresol text with a translation, even the numbers 1 to 10. -- Rick Harrison (hrick@gate.net) ---------- From: Paul Lucas Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 15:41:29 +0000 Subject: CONLANG: Re: Solresol - any data? Does anyone have any data at all about Solresol [...] anything would be helpful, a paragraph of Solresol text with a translation, even the numbers 1 to 10. I haven't found enough information yet to provide a whole paragraph of Solresol, but I did recently find some information about numbers. As with the rest of Solresol, each word also serves as the word for any other similar concept, as shown in the following list. redodo - one, unity, first, unique, etc remimi - two, second, twice, etc refafa - three, thrice, third, etc resolsol - four, etc relala - five, etc resisi - six, etc mimido - seven, etc mimire - eight, etc mimifa - nine, etc mimisol - ten, etc mimila - eleven, etc midodo - thirteen, etc fafare - twenty, etc fafami - thirty, etc fafasol - forty, etc farere - one hundred, etc famimi - one thousand, etc fasolsol - one million, etc The numbers are contained within a 'group' or 'section' of the vocabulary that contains consecutively repeating notes (i.e. redodo but not doredo). This group also contains words relating to the seasons, the months, and the climate. Unfortunately I was unable to find an explanation as to the particular choice of sound/number associations. It appears that instead of identifying some list of minimum necessary numbers (zero to ten, twenty, thirty, etc) and joining them to make the others (e.g. ten and one to make eleven), Solresol appears to have unique combinations for each number. It is difficult to know, however, since this is such a small sample and there are only the two exceptions. Any comments? Paul Lucas (p.lucas@hud.ac.uk) ---------- Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 23:07:18 -0800 From: dasher@NETCOM.COM (Anton Sherwood) Subject: CONLANG: Solresol Here's the good parts of what Drezen (Historio de la Mondolingvo) (History of the WorldLanguage) says about Solresol. La kombinajxoj el 1 kaj 2 muziknotoj faris partetojn kaj pronomojn: (The combination of 1 and 2 musicnotes is and :) si - jes (yes) do - ne (no) re - kaj (and) mi - aw (or) sol - cia (if) La plej uzataj vortoj formigxis el kombino de tri notoj: (The most words are formed of combine of three notes:) doredo tempo (time) doremi tago (day) dorefa semajno (week) doresol monato (month) dorela jaro (year) doresi jarcento (century) Kombinajxoj el 4 notoj estis dividitaj je klasoj, law la komencanta noto; tiel ekzemple la klaso `do' rilatis homon materian kaj moralan, klaso `re' - familion, mastrumon kaj tualeton, klaso `mi' - agojn de la homo kaj liajn mankojn, ktp. (Combinations of 4 notes are divided by class, the initial note; example the class 'do' aspects human physical and moral, class 're' - family, household and dress, class 'mi' - of the human and his (shortcomings?), etc.) Kiam iu vorto estis verbo, tiam la nomo de la objekto, persono, adjektivo kaj adverbo, devenanta de tiu verbo, formigxis per akcento sur la 1a, 2a, 3a kaj 4a silabo de la vorto. Ekzemple: ( word is verb, the name of the object, persion, adjective and adverb, of verb, formed by accent on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th syllables of the word. Example:) sirelasi establi, fondi (to constitute) SIrelasi konstitucio (constitution) siRElasi konstituanta (konsistiga) (constituent) sireLAsi konstitucia (constitutional) sirelaSI law la konstitucio (constitutionally) La ideo kontrawa esprimigxis per renversita ordo de la silaboj en la koncerna vorto, ekzemple (The idea contrary expressed by reversing order of the syllables in the concerned verb, example) misol bono (good) solmi malbono (bad) sollasi suprenigxi (ascendi) (rise) silasol malsuprenigxi (malascendi) (descend) ---------- From: hrick@gate.net (Rick Harrison) Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 02:40:07 -0500 Subject: CONLANG: re: Solresol Paul Lucas writes: > Solresol appears to have unique combinations for each > number. It is difficult to know, however, since this is > such a small sample and there are only the two exceptions. > > Any comments? My main comment is "thank you." It is strange how difficult finding info about Solresol has become, considering how well-known it apparently was in its time. The Societie pour la Propagation de la Langue Universelle Solresol must have done a very poor job of distributing the literature. -- Rick Harrison -------------------------------------------------------- Solresol (also called langue musicale universale (Universal Musical Language) was invented by Jean Francois Sudre (1798-1866), a French music teacher, early in the 19th century. It is based on the eight-note musical scale. It could be spoken, sung or played on a musical instrument. At the beginning of the twentieth century there may still have been some speakers, making it one of the longest lived artificial languages. (From the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language) -------------------------------------------------------- Quote from "The Artificial Language Movement" One project, however, did generate considerable interest throughout much of the nineteenth century. Solresol (Langue Musicale Universelle) was an unusually eccentric language even by the standards of universal language projects, and this in all probability accounts for some of its undoubted popularity. It was conceived shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and still had active supporters at the outset of the First World War a century later. The inventor of Solresol, Jean Francois Sudre, was a music master who appreciated that not only was music an international medium but that the seven notes of the "Solfrege" or "Sol-fa" (now somewhat altered in the English forms of the Tonic Sol-Fa), employed for teaching singing, had an internationally-recognised syllabic value: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si. He therefore set out to produce a language which would have a vocabulary constructed from these seven syllables alone. Although Solresol was an a priori language, it was not a philosophical language based upon a logical classification of ideas. Combinations of one or two notes form the particles and pronouns: si = yes dore = I redo = my do = no domi = you remi = your re = and dofa = he refa = his mi = or sol = if Combinations of three notes are used for the most commonly encountered words: doredo = time doresol = month doremi = day dorela = year dorefa = week doresi = century Combinations of four notes are divided into seven classes (called keys) according to the initial note. the key of 'do' includes the physical and moral aspects of man, 're' is used for the family, household, and dress, 'la' for industry and commerce, and so on. Combinations of five notes furnish the names of the three categories: animal, vegetable, and mineral. And finally, to accommodate proper names, geographical terms, etc., Sudre provided a transcription in notes of the letters of the alphabet. Altogether, Sudre planned to use seven words of one syllable, 49 of two syllables, 336 of three syllables, 2,268 of four syllables, and 9,072 of five syllables. Grammatical categories may be distinguished by the position of an accent over the syllables as follows: sirelasi to constitute (verb) SIrelasi constitution (name of a thing) siRElasi constituent (name of a person) sireLAsi constitutional (adjective) sirelaSI constitutionally (adverb) The opposite of an idea is often expressed by reversing the order of the syllables in a word, so: misol = good solmi = evil domisol = God solmido = Devil sollasi = to go up silasol = to go down Based as it was on the musical scale, Solresol could not only be spoken but sung, whistled, or played on a musical instrument. If each syllable was reduced to its first letter (which leaves no ambiguity [what about 'sol' and 'si'? -JS; perhaps 'ti'? - GdB]) then a kind of shorthand is provided which could be written at speed. Solresol could also serve as a gesture language for the deaf and dumb. The Artificial Language Movement by Andrew Large. (Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, Ltd. 1985), pp 60-62, -------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list of people who are interested in SolReSol for some reason. This list is extracted from people who have emailed Greg Baker. http://www.matra.com.au/~gregb Greg Baker has no particularly good reason for wanting to learn SolReSol. He's just eccentric. http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~winikoff Michael Winikoff is a computer scientist and musician. Ian Martin writes experimental music and is wants to write a piece that is both spoken and sung at the same time. Brandi Weed is looking for sourcebooks. Rick Harrison found the titles of the two books we know of. He has tried inter-library loans, book-sellers' networks, etc. Michael Paulkovich will be in Munich in September - he will divert via Paris to look in libraries there. He has some friends in France looking elsewhere. Leland Bryant Ross wants to publish a bi-lingual book (English and Esperanto) on Solresol. Jeff Skinner has been interested in SolReSol for several years now, and is patiently searching for more information. Michael Raposo wants to see the Lord's Prayer (the Our Father) translated into SolReSol. Ultimately we wants to compose a song that is also a story or poem. http://members.aol.com/langsource/index.html The Artificial Languages Laboratory is not a person but has a great deal of useful information on constructed languages in general. -------------------------------------------------------- Notes on "The Artificial Language Movement" Altogether, Sudre planned to use seven words of one syllable, 49 of two syllables, 336 of three syllables, 2,268 of four syllables, and 9,072 of five syllables. (Check the math on this, I believe Sudre had not exhausted all the combinations of notes. -JS. ) Length Possibilities Used Unused 1 7 7 0 2 49 49 0 3 343 336 7 4 2401 2268 133 5 16807 9072 7735 What to make of this? The obvious reason for the missing 3-note combinations would be to disallow combinations like do-do-do. Removing re-do-do-do, do-do-do-re and do-do-do-do explains 105 of the missing 4-note combinations - does anyone have any good ideas for the other 28? Brave enough to try the combinatorics for 5-note words? -------------------------------------------------------- Known Words in Solresol Translations listed in quotation marks are in Esperanto. One note words do = no ("ne") re = and ("kaj") mi = or ("au") sol = if ("cia") si = yes ("jes") Two note words do-re = I do-mi = you do-fa = he re-do = my re-mi = your re-fa = his re-sol = good sol-re = bad/evil mi-sol = good ("bono") sol-mi = evil ("malbono") Three note words do-re-do = time ("tempo") do-re-mi = day ("tago") do-re-fa = week ("semajno") do-re-sol = month ("monato") do-re-la = year ("jaro") do-re-si = century ("jarcento") do-mi-sol = God sol-mi-do = Devil sol-la-si = to go up ("suprenigxi (ascendi)") si-la-sol = to go down ("malsuprenigxi (malascendi)") sol-re-sol = langue musicale universale mi-la-si = to love re-do-do = one, unity, first, unique, etc re-mi-mi = two, second, twice, etc re-fa-fa = three, thrice, third, etc re-sol-sol = four, etc re-la-la = five, etc re-si-si = six, etc mi-mi-do = seven, etc mi-mi-re = eight, etc mi-mi-fa = nine, etc mi-mi-sol = ten, etc mi-mi-la = eleven, etc mi-do-do = thirteen, etc fa-fa-re = twenty, etc fa-fa-mi = thirty, etc fa-fa-sol = forty, etc fa-re-re = one hundred, etc fa-mi-mi = one thousand, etc fa-sol-sol = one million, etc Four note words do words - physical and moral aspects of man No known examples re words - family, household and dress No known examples la words - industry and commerce No known examples si words - government and politics??? sirelasi = to constitute ("establi, fondi") SIrelasi = constitution ("konstitucio") siRElasi = constituent ("konstituanta (konsistiga)") sireLAsi = constitutional ("konstitucia") sirelaSI = constitutionally ("law la konstitucio") Five note words No examples known -------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 02:48:09 -0700 From: Eclipse To: dboese@freenet.npiec.on.ca Subject: Solresol Greetings, I've been combing the internet for information about the artificial musical language Solresol, and eventually was desperate enough to search through archived usenet files, where I was mildly surprised to find that I'm not the only one who's spent hours doing this... did you ever get any answers to your request for information on it? or find anything else about it? I would really like to know. Thank you for your time, Julia eclipse@a.crl.com http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2082/index.html -------------------------------------------------------- >"En 1827 Francois Soudre inventas la Solresol (Langue musicale >universelle, 1866). Ankau li opinias, ke la sep muzikaj notoj >reprezentas alfabeton kompreneblan de ciuj popoloj (oni povas ilin >skribi sammaniere en ciu lingvo, ilin kanti, registri en liniaro, ilin >reprezenti per stenografia specialaj signoj, ilin figuri per la unuaj >sep arabaj ciferoj, per la sep spektraj koloroj, au ec tusante per la >dekstramanag fingroj la fingrojn de la maldekstra mano, kaj do, ilin >povos uzi ankau la blinduloj kaj la surdmuntuloj). Ne necese ili devas >rilati al logika ideklassifikado. Per unu noto oni povas esprimi >vortojn kiel "jes" (si) au "ne" (do), per du notoj pronomojn kiel "mia" >(redo) kaj "via" (remi) per tri komunuzajn vortojon kiel "tempo" >(doredo) au tago (doremi), en kiuj la komena noto signas enciklopedian >klason. Sed poste soudre decidas esprimi la kontrauojn per >ordoinversigo (per dodekafonaj terminoj oni devus diri: per >seriinversigo), tiel ke se domisol - perfekta akordo - estas Dio, >solmido estos Satano (sed tiukaze oni malvalidigas la regulon, ke la >komenca noto rilatas al difinita enciklopedia klaso, konsiderante ke la >komenca noto do rilatas al la fixikaj kaj moralaj ecoj, sed la komenca >noto si [sol?] signas politikajn kaj sociajn rilatojn, en kuj sajnas >malfacile - au tro moralisme - inkludi la demonon). La sistemo aldonas >al la kutimaj malfacilajoj de la aprioraj lingvoj, ke la parolanto devas >havi bonan orelon por muziko. Iel reenas la mita birda lingvo de la >17-a jarcento, sed kun multe malpli da glosolalia malprecizeco, kaj >amazo da kodiga pedanteco...." --------------------------------------------------------