This description of an artificial auxiliary language, which I hope is fictional, was one of my contributions to the Scat Noir Encyclopaedia. This book is still available from Amazon, and provides ample entertainment and instruction.

HOOHOO: Hoohoo is an artificial auxiliary language, developed by Dr. Ernst Babner in the early twentieth century.

Dr. Babner, a professor of religious studies in Zurich, first outlined his creation in the 1924 pamphlet Before Babel: Pre-Articulate Commonality, followed by the 1926 treatise Hoohoo: The Natural Universal Language. He argued that all language derived from animal cries, common to all cultures, and that the most feasible universal language was one based on that vocabulary.

He began with using instinctive human vocalizations, such as laughter, weeping, cooing, whimpering, snorting, and yelling, to express the corresponding emotions. He added imitations of animals and the sounds of nature, to express ideas related to them: the howl of a wolf meant “hunger,” the oinking of a pig “satiety,” the blowing of the wind “cold.” He argued that, unlike most a posteriori constructed languages, Hoohoo was free of cultural bias, easily accessible to all.

His public demonstrations, in which he stood gravely at a lectern, making barnyard noises, were met with gales of laughter, but produced few converts. A few meetings were held, only to be cheerfully mocked by the press. Critics also pointed out that Hoohoo was incapable of abstraction, being effectively limited to discussing bodily functions, and that the written language was virtually incomprehensible. Today, Hoohoo is only spoken by a few devotees of constructed languages.