Solresol

Solresol was invented by François Sudre (1787-1862), a musician, composer and music teacher. He started working on it in 1817 and continued until his death in 1862. His book about the language was published in 1866. He called the language 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.

Sudre taught his language to two other musicians, Édouard Deldevez and Charles Larsonneur, and the trio toured France, Belgium and the UK to promote and demonstrate the language.

The French army and navy tried out the language as a way to transmit messages at a distance via bugle. This was not entirely successful.

Solresol has seven syllables based on the Western musical scale: do re mi fa sol la si, though you don't have to be familiar with music in order to learn it. The total number of Solresol words is 2,660: 7 words with one syllable; 49 with two syllables; 336 with three syllables and 2,268 with four syllables;

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).

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.

Accenting different syllables is used to indicate the category of word. Accents 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 1st syllable = abstract noun, e.g. sōlremifa = song
accented 2nd 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 have an opposite of related meaning 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
dofa = you - fado = your

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)

Written forms of Solresol

Latin alphabet: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si
Latin alphabet without the vowels (except the o of sol to distinguish it from si): d, r, m, f, so, l, s
As notes on a musical scale of just three lines:
As numerals: 1 (do), 2 (re), 3 (mi), 4 (fa), 5 (sol), 6 (la), 7 (si)
Using the Solresol stenographic script invented by Vincent Gajewski:

Solresol can also be represented by the seven colours of the rainbow, (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet), by manual signs, with different coloured flags, or by painting.

Sample words in the Solresol stenographic script

Double syllables are indicated with a line through them.

Sample text

Sire misolredo doredore famido re misolla, re famisol dosila re refasi. Dofa midomido midodosi dofasifa re domilafa, re falado fasolfa miladomi midodosi simisila.

Hear a recording of this text

Translation and recording by Simon Ager.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Videos in and about Solresol

Information about Solresol | Phrases | Numbers | Family words

Links

Information about Solresol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solresol
https://tmh.conlang.org/solresol/
https://sillylinguistics.com/solresol/
https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/solresol.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Sudre_(1787-1862)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Sudre
http://www.labirintoermetico.com/12ArsCombinatoria/lingue_universali/Gajewski_B_Grammaire_du_SolReSol_Sudre.pdf

Solresol numbers
http://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-solresol/en/solresol/

Other notation systems

Alchemical symbols, Blissymbolics, Graffiti, Shorthand, Solresol, Sutton SignWriting, Yi Jing Hexagrams

International Auxiliary Languages

Blissymbolics, Esperanto, Folkspraak, Glosa, Ido, Interglossa, Interlingua, Interlingue/Occidental, Interslavic, Lingua Franca Nova, Lojban, Novial, Romance Neolatino, Romániço, Slovio, Solresol, Uropi, Volapük

Page last modified: 06.09.24

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