Lingua ignota

Lingua ignota
St. Hildegard's 23 litterae ignotae
Pronunciation[ˈlinɡwa iŋˈnoːta]
Created byHildegard of Bingen
Purpose
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone
IETFart-x-ignota
Litterae ignotae
Script type
Alphabet
CreatorHildegard von Bingen
Period
12th century
DirectionLeft-to-right
LanguageLingua ignota

A lingua ignota (Latin for "unknown language") was described by the 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who apparently used it for mystical purposes. It consists of vocabulary with no known grammar; the only known text is individual words embedded in Latin. To write it, Hildegard used an alphabet of 23 letters denominated litterae ignotae (Latin for "unknown letters").