Solresol

Solresol (Solfège: Sol-Re-Sol), originally called Langue universelle and then Langue musicale universelle, is a constructed language devised by François Sudre, beginning in 1827. His major book on it, Langue Musicale Universelle, was published after his death in 1866, though he had already been publicizing it for some years. Solresol enjoyed a brief spell of popularity, reaching its pinnacle with Boleslas Gajewski's 1902 publication of Grammaire du Solresol. Today, there exist small communities of Solresol enthusiasts scattered across the world. There are multiple versions of Solresol, and they each have minor differences. Currently, there are three small variations on the language, each of which mostly edit vocabulary and a small amount of the grammar. Sudre created the language, and thus his version deserves the title of being the original version of Solresol. Vincent Gajewski popularised the language as the president of the Central committee for the study and advancement of Solresol, founded by Madame Sudre. Boleslas Gajewski, the son of Vincent, published the Grammar of Solresol. This is the most publicised version of Solresol, thanks to the translation to English by Stephen L. Rice from 1997, with a chunk of the vocabulary changed from the original, as well as some of the grammar. One example is the word fasol, defined as "here" in Sudre's dictionary, but "why?" in Gajewski's. The third is an unofficial version developed over time by the community, dubbed "Modern Solresol". It uses Sudre's version as a base, with tweaks to the grammar and vocabulary, such as changing the definitions of sisol and sila from meaning "Sir" and "Young man", to an honorifics system inspired by what is used in Japanese; both are gender-neutral titles, one to be respectful, and one to be affectionate. Gajewski's publication brought various additions that don't conflict with the original version of the language, such as various new methods of communication, including a set of symbols, using the seven colours of the rainbow, using Tonic sol-fa to sign the language, and more.