There is something truly fascinating about the choice to create an entire language out of thin air for a work of fiction. Naturally, not every fictional language has the same level of complexity, and while simply constructed semi-gibberish can be enough for narrative purposes (ask Pingu), works of science fiction and heroic fantasy can produce remarkably complex and comprehensive languages, with robust grammar and enough content to be usable in the real world.
What are we talking about?
Fictional languages are part of the family of constructed languages, or conlangs for short. They are not to be confused with conlangs made for real-life use, such as Esperanto. They are also not to be confused with substitution cyphers, which are just real-world languages written with a code that swaps letters for other symbols. Al Bhed from Final Fantasy X comes to mind.
Scattered origins
While historical records suggest that the practice of constructing languages might trace back to the 13th century and the intriguing but incomplete Lingua ignota, the case for tailor-made languages for fiction is different. A great read on the topic is In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent. Some partial attempts were made throughout the centuries: Sir Thomas More’s Utopia has a small sample of Utopian language, with its own alphabet and influences from Latin, Greek and even Sanskrit. But it was far too little to be considered the first fleshed out fictional language! Same for other interesting but somewhat limited attempts (Lunar language from The Man in the Moone, Barsoomian from A Princess on Mars, R’lyehian from The Call of Cthulhu…).
Leave it to a linguist
The pivotal point for the practice of language construction in the context of fiction came through the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Having experimented with conlangs himself in his youth, and having become proficient in Esperanto at an early age, his work as a translator and linguist was a logical continuation, and more crucially what led him to build fictional languages of such depth and intricacy for his works around the Middle-earth. A Secret Vice, his 1931 lecture on conlangs for fiction purposes, is a must-read to understand his perception of the makings of a good fictional language. Among other things, he insists on the necessity of an associated mythology for a language to survive, let alone thrive. Beyond the completeness of flagship languages like Quenya and Sindarin, Tolkien built an extensive universe of unprecedented linguistic richness, with their own writing system. As with the immense majority of conlangs, vocabulary across the Middle-earth drew direct inspiration from languages of our world, particularly reflecting Tolkien’s fondness for Finno-ugric and Celtic languages. He was by no means the first to include fictional languages in his stories, but no one before him made such a lasting impact through them.
The boom
From that point, developing tailor-made languages for works of fiction - to various degrees of complexity - has become less of an alien concept (pun intended), although it remains a daunting task reserved for expansive fantasy or sci-fi worlds.
The ambitions of movies and shows ballooning along with audiences have led to much larger budgets for production, which includes world-building work. A few decades ago, Star Wars and Star Trek were all the average Joe could think of as far as audiovisual conlangs went. Maaaaaaybe Stargate SG-1 for the initiated. Today, superproductions can call up linguists to add a spectacular new layer of immersion to their franchise. Some linguists have become masters of this new and ever so specific craft, such as Marc Okrand (Star Trek, Atlantis), Paul Frommer (Avatar, John Carter) or David J. Peterson (Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dune).
Video games may be a far younger medium, but the industry also experienced the kind of growth that opens the door to conlangs. D’ni from the Myst series was an early bird (1993), the first of many. Notable examples include Skyrim’s Dovahzul, Far Cry’s Wenja, Warcraft’s Darnassian, The Witcher’s Elder Speech and Greedfall’s Yecht Fradí. Recently, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum took it a step further by offering a Sindarin dub for the game’s elves as a DLC!
Considering the charm of these languages lies as much in their script as it does in speech, they are much more prevalent in multimedia like movies or video games. It is worth noting, however, that a few interesting attempts were made within more limited formats, such as Syldavian and Bordurian in The Adventures of Tintin. And let’s not forget the great mystery of whether Kobaïan, spoken throughout the works of legendary prog rock band Magma, is a genuine language or merely consistent gibberish built around phonetics and the emotions they convey.
New horizons
Beyond the usual immersion factor, conlangs in interactive media are a fantastic way to engage the core of an audience on a much deeper level with the world and story at play, pushing them to build communities and create content around the language.
Conlangs are more mainstream than ever before. Klingon and High Valeryan are available to learn on Duolingo, with hundreds of thousands of learners! Internet forums allow for the exchange of ideas like never before, and gives us a glimpse into many awesome ideas, like Palindrian, a conlang where every word is a palindrome! Sky’s the limit.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this dive into conlangs, where we will examine the process behind building them.
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