Formálun

Formálun is a neologism used in linguistics and worldbuilding to denote the process of converting informal utterances into formal representations within a language or symbolic system. It describes a formalization protocol designed to produce unambiguous, machine-readable statements from everyday speech.

In practice, formálun involves defining explicit referents, standardizing syntax, and establishing mappings to logical forms or ontologies. It emphasizes clarity, repeatability, and traceability of the transformation, rather than stylistic or rhetorical features of original contributions.

Origins and scope: The term began appearing in 2020s discussions about natural language formalization and conlang theory. It is not part of mainstream linguistic methodology, but appears in speculative fiction, glossaries of constructed languages, and experimental papers as a model concept.

Etymology and orthography: The form "formálun" is an invented construction intended to evoke formality; it is not derived from a known natural language. Its spelling with the diacritic and suffix is descriptive, used to signal the concept's artificial or formal nature.

Applications and examples: In theoretical work, formálun serves as a framework for exploring how informal discourse might be systematically recast into formal grammars, logic, or data schemas. In worldbuilding, it provides a shorthand for describing how a culture or organization codifies speech into rules or software inputs.

See also: formalization, formal language theory, controlled natural language, conlang terminology.