Episode 5 – Solresol – The Musical Language

In this episode I talk about Solresol, a musical language invented by François Sudre in the early 19th century. It is designed to be a simple language for international communication with just seven basic syllables based on the Western major musical scale (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si).

Solresol was the first constructed language to be taken seriously as an international auxiliary language (IAL), and the only musical language that gained much of a following.

I look at the history of the language, and its structure, and will play with it to see how it works.

Here are the Solresol words and phrases I use during this episode:

Simi re domi dosolfala misol fa lalaresi refafa lasi la lamisolsi solresol lasolfado.
Hello and welcome to episode five of the Omniglot podcast.

The appears to be no word for welcome in Solresol so I used domi dosolfala misol (you come well), and for Omniglot podcast I used lamisolsi solresol lasolfado (all language show).

There is no word for radio either, but maybe you could use resolrefa solfasimi fasidola resisido (“send sound far device”). I came up with lasirela sifamire lasi dofadofa (“international network of knowledge”) for internet. So another way of translating Radio Omniglot Podcast might be lamisolsi solresol lasolfado lare la lasirela sifamire lasi dofadofa (“All language show on the international network of knowledge”).

  • doredomi = body, physical
  • domilafa = rationality, reason, sense, reasonable
  • sofamisol = wisdom, wise, sage, wisely
  • dolasoldo = meat, steak, beef
  • redoredo = clothes, outfit, effects
  • remifala = home, house, hut, cottage, hotel
  • remisolla = room, lounge, dining room
  • residoso = family, kinship, relative
  • solremifa = to sing
  • sôlremifa = song
  • solrêmifa = singer
  • solremîfa = songlike
  • solremifâ = singingly
  • sôlremifa’ / sôlremifaa = songs
  • sôlremifa’a = female singer
  • dolmîfado = man; dolmîfadô = woman
  • sisol = Mr; sisôl = Mrs
  • dore = I, me, myself; dorê = we, us, ourselves
  • misol = well, good
  • solmi = wrong, evil
  • fala = good, tasty, delectable, exquisite, delicious
  • lafa= bad
  • solla = always, perpetuate, perpetuately, constantly
  • lasol = never
  • simi = good morning/afternon, hello
  • misi = good evening/night
  • dore = I, me, myself
  • redo = my, mine
  • dofa = you, yourself
  • fado = your, yours
  • dore domilado = I speak
  • dore lala domilado = I am speaking
  • dore sisi domilado = I was speaking
  • dore dodo domilado = I have spoken
  • dore rere domilado = I spoke
  • dore mimi domilado = I will speak, I will have spoken
  • dore fafa domilado = I will speak, I will have spoken
  • solsol domilado = Speak!

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

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)

Dore lala domilado solresol re solremisol lasisol. Domi mifare?
I am speaking Solresol with vocal punctuation. Do you like it?

Solsi mido dosollado re simi.
Thanks for listening and good afternoon.

There appears to be no word for goodbye in Solresol so I used simi, which is a general greeting meaning hello, good morning, good afternoon.

Information about Solresol

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/solresol.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solresol
https://www.sidosi.org/
https://i.sidosi.org/resources/grammar-of-solresol/grammar-of-solresol.html
https://www.sidosi.org/translator

About muscial constructed languages

Other musical languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_language
http://www.kunstsprachen.de/s21/
http://eaiea.com/
http://brackenwood.wikia.com/wiki/Sarus
http://www.thelanguageofmoss.com/

You can hear a longer version of The Clockwork Octopus / Yr Wythdroed Clocwaith at:

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