Enochian (/ɪˈnoʊkiən/ ə-NOH-kee-ən) is an occult constructed language[3]—said by its originators to have been received from angels—recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England.

The language found in Dee's and Kelley's journals encompasses a limited textual corpus.

Linguist Donald Laycock, an Australian Skeptic, studied the Enochian journals, and argues against any extraordinary features.

The untranslated texts of the Liber Loagaeth manuscript recall the patterns of glossolalia rather than true language.

According to Tobias Churton in his text The Golden Builders,[7] the concept of an Angelic or antediluvian language was common during Dee's time.

In 1581, Dee mentioned in his personal journals that God had sent "good angels" to communicate directly with prophets.

[citation needed] About a year later, at the court of King Stephen Báthory in Kraków, where both alchemists stayed for some time, another set of texts was reportedly received through Kelley.

[citation needed] These texts comprise 48 poetic verses with English translations, which in Dee's manuscripts are called Claves Angelicae, or Angelic Keys.

Dee was apparently intending to use these Keys to open the "Gates of Understanding"[10] represented by the magic squares in Liber Loagaeth: I am therefore to instruct and inform you, according to your Doctrine delivered, which is contained in 49 Tables.

The alphabet also shares many graphical similarities to a script, also attributed to the prophet Enoch, that appeared in the Voarchadumia Contra Alchimiam of Johannes Pantheus,[15] a copy of which Dee is known to have owned.

[13] The phonology of Enochian is "thoroughly English", apart from difficult sequences such as bdrios, excolphabmartbh, longamphlg, lapch, etc.

[5] Laycock reports that the largest number of forms are recorded for 'be' and for goh- 'say':[5] Note that christeos 'let there be' might be from 'Christ', and if so is not part of a conjugation.

While the Angelic Keys contain most of the known vocabulary of Enochian, dozens of further words are found throughout Dee's journals.

[5] According to Laycock: The texts in the Loagaeth show patterning "characteristically found in certain types of meaningless language (such as glossolalia), which is often produced under conditions similar to trance.

It seems possible to identify the numerals from 0 to 10:[39] However, Enochian texts contain larger numbers written in alphabetical form, and there is no discernible system behind them:[39]

As Laycock put it, "the test of any future spirit-revelation of the Enochian language will be the explanation of this numerical system.

"[39] Dee believed Enochian to be the Adamic language universally spoken before the confusion of tongues.