Zaum

Zaum
Khlebnikov's book Zangezi (1922)
Created byAleksei Kruchenykh
Date1910s
Setting and usagePoetic experimentation
Purpose
Cyrillic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3qmz (private use)
IETFart-x-zaum (private use)

Zaum (Russian: за́умь, lit.'transrational') are the linguistic experiments in sound symbolism and language creation of Russian Cubo-Futurist poets such as Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh. Zaum is a non-referential phonetic entity with its own ontology. The language consists of neologisms that mean nothing. Zaum is a language organized through phonetic analogy and rhythm. Zaum literature cannot contain any onomatopoeia or psychopathological states.