kyogen: Nah. Modern languages aren't artificial in a hardcore sense, but they are affected by changes in communication, so standards and expectations have changed since the early modern period.
Isambard: 'Artificial' in a sense that they aren't naturally developed from any vernacular. They are a mixture, sometimes only based on one prestigious dialect or sociolect with added features from vast array of spoken varieties.
I think we're using "artificial" a little differently, but I see what you're saying. I was avoiding the term because all human societies have always had some sort of prestige dialect--court scholars, priests, legal and trade records, poetry and certain types of storytelling, etc.--alongside various other ways of speaking. It's a natural part of human linguistic and social development, so "artificial" just sounded odd to me.