Enochian

Enochian is a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th century England. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable, and Kelley was a spirit medium who worked with Dee in his magical investigations. The men claimed that the language was revealed to them by angels. Some contemporary scholars of magic consider it a constructed language that is nonetheless viable for magical workings, while other scholars of constructed languages simply consider it a very poor imitation of an ancient language, with grammar derived primarily from English. The language is integral to the practice of Enochian magic.

The language found in Dee and Kelley's journals encompasses a limited textual corpus, only some of it with English translations. Several linguists, notably Donald Laycock, have studied Enochian, and argue against any extraordinary features in the language.

Dee's journals did not describe the language as "Enochian", instead preferring descriptors like "Angelical", the "Celestial Speech", the "Language of Angels", the "First Language of God-Christ", the "Holy Language", or "Adamical" because, according to Dee's Angels, it was used by Adam in Paradise to name all things. The term "Enochian" comes from Dee's assertion that the Biblical Patriarch Enoch had been the last human (before Dee and Kelley) to know the language.