When a schoolboy gets frustrated with the oddities and illogicalities of French and German he might give up. Alternatively he might become interested in linguistics. I became interested in linguistics. It has been many years since my schooldays but I have stayed interested.
Artificial languages are a minor area of linguistics. There are however a phenomenal number of artificial languages around. Indeed, while natural languages are shrinking in number man-made ones are increasing. Mind you there might be just one speaker, or none, of any given man-made tongue. If you want to get a flavour of the variety around try Jeffrey Henning's Model Languages electronic newsletter website. I have given other links below too.
There are many reasons for someone to want to devise an artificial language, and many have done so. I have written one myself. One man might want to find a way for all the peoples of the world to talk together in peace in a common language. For another it is an intellectual exercise to keep the brain in trim. Another treats it as an amusement, to fill the time. Yet another has it as a way to take his frustrations out on his very words, bashing them into order and enjoying the nominal power over them.
My reasons are all of those except the first. The whole idea is ridiculous. Who could think the French would want to abandon the language of Voltaire nor the Germans the speech of Goethe. I would certainly not shrug off the tongue of Shakespeare and Dickens. I have none of those silly delusions which sustain, for example, Esperanto. Instead I enjoy being pleased with myself for being bright enough to make a good go of the man-made language game. The doing of it has also taught me a lot more of depth about the several languages I already knew and brought a new appreciation for English itself.
My exercise, immodestly called "Baanzish", is on its own Baanzish webpage. I hope you enjoy it. My new project, as a contrast to is an inflected language called "Marklendsk".
Another man-made language I particularly like is "Degaspregos", by Thomas Weir.
The scheme of Degaspregos is completely different from Baanzish but it does show what can be done with a language that is entirely logical and it does manage to express subtleties of concept which are impossible even in English. The Degaspregos page also has a most elegant and eloquent description of why anyone should do such an odd thing as to compose an artificial language.
You might be interested in Damin, a secret language among the Lardil
aboriginal people of Australia, thought to have only 250 words in its whoe
vocabulary. The only information I have on it is at:
Damin
No exercise like this is ever finished. The English language is still unfinished after 1,500 years of use. I found, as will you if you do the same, that I was always coming up with new logical problems and having to think of new subtleties. I am a determined sort, and once started an my little intellectual exercise I could not stop until the end, which never came. Language is not a simple matter. Perhaps the old, illogical, irregular but real languages are better after all. Do not let that stop you from trying the same though if you are thinking about it.
Rupert A H Barnes
Other lists of links are found on sites by:
Richard Kennaway and
William W. Patterson