Fictional languages are the subset of

constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...

s (conlangs) that have been created as part of a fictional setting (e.g. for use in a book, movie, television show, or video game). Typically they are the creation of one individual, while natural languages evolve out of a particular culture or people group, and other conlangs may have group involvement. Fictional

languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

are also distinct from natural languages in that they have no native speakers. By contrast, the constructed language of

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communic ...

now has native speakers. Fictional languages are intended to be the languages of a fictional world and are often designed with the intent of giving more depth, and an appearance of plausibility, to the fictional worlds with which they are associated. The goal of the author may be to have their characters communicate in a fashion which is both alien and dislocated. Within their fictional world, these languages do function as natural languages, helping to identify certain races or people groups and set them apart from others. While some less-formed fictional languages are created as distorted versions or

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of a pre-existing natural language, many are independently designed conlangs with their own

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word (), neuter of () meaning 'of or fo ...

(some more robust than others) and rules of

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...

. Some of the latter are fully formed enough to be learned as a speakable language, and many

subcultures A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, pol ...

exist of those who are 'fluent' in one or more of these fictional languages. Often after the creator of a fictional language has accomplished their task, the

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...

of that

fictional universe A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes ma ...

will pick up where the creator left off and continue to flesh out the language, making it more like a natural language and therefore more usable.

Purpose

Fictional languages are separated from

artistic language An artistic language, or artlang, is a constructed language designed for aesthetic and phonetic pleasure. Language can be artistic to the extent that artists use it as a source of creativity in art, poetry, calligraphy or as a metaphor to address ...

s by both purpose and relative completion: a fictional language often has the least amount of grammar and vocabulary possible, and rarely extends beyond the absolutely necessary. At the same time, some others have developed languages in detail for their own sake, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's

Quenya Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in '' Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed l ...

and

Sindarin Sindarin is one of the fictional languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda, primarily in Middle-earth. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the Elves. The word is a Quenya word. Called in E ...

(two Elvish languages), ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

''s

Klingon language The Klingon language ( tlh, tlhIngan Hol, links=no, '' '': , ) is the constructed language spoken by a fictional alien race called the Klingons, in the ''Star Trek'' universe. Described in the 1985 book '' The Klingon Dictionary'' by Marc Ok ...

and ''Avatar'''s Na'vi language which exist as functioning, usable languages. By analogy with the word "conlang", the term ''

conworld Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task fo ...

'' is used to describe these fictional worlds, inhabited by fictional

constructed culture Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task fo ...

s. The conworld influences vocabulary (what words the language will have for flora and fauna, articles of clothing, objects of technology, religious concepts, names of places and tribes, etc.), as well as influencing other factors such as pronouns, or how their cultures view the break-off points between colors or the gender and age of family members. Sound is also a directing factor, as creators seek to show their audience through

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

the type of race or people group to whom the language belongs.

Commercial fictional languages

Commercial fictional languages are those languages created for use in various commercial media, such as: * Books (

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...

and

) * Films (

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...

's Na'vi, Baahubali's Kiliki and

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

' Huttese.) * Television shows (

Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of '' A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the fir ...

Valyrian The Valyrian languages are a fictional language family in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, and in their television adaptation ''Game of Thrones'' and later ''House of the Dragon''. In the novels, Hi ...

and Dothraki) * Video games ('' Skyrim's'' dragon language: Dovazul,

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...

Simlish Simlish is a fictional language featured in EA's ''Sim'' series of games. It debuted in ''SimCopter'' (1996), and has been especially prominent in ''The Sims'' franchise, as well as in its spinoff ''MySims'' series. Simlish can also be hear ...

, Splatoon's inkling typeface.) * Comics (

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...

Bordurian Borduria (Cyrillic: Бордурија) is a fictional country in ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. ...

and

Syldavian Syldavian is a fictional West Germanic language created by Hergé as the national language of Syldavia, a fictional Balkan kingdom that serves as a major setting in many of ''The Adventures of Tintin'' stories. Hergé modeled the language on Br ...

) * Toys ( Furby's Furbish) * Musical albums (

Magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natura ...

Kobaïan Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander (musician), Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profound ...

) *Children's TV shows (

Pingu ''Pingu'' is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerl ...

's Penguinese) While some languages are created purely from the desire of the creator, language creation can be a profession. In 1974, Victoria Fromkin was the first person hired to create a language ( ''Land of the Lost'''s Paku). Since then, notable professional language creators have included Marc Okrand (

David Peterson David Robert Peterson (born December 28, 1943) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty. Backgr ...

( Dothraki and others in ''

''), and

Paul Frommer Paul R. Frommer (; born September 17, 1944) is an American communications professor at the University of Southern California (USC) and a linguistics consultant. He is the former Vice President, Special Projects Coordinator, Strategic Planner, ...

( Na'vi).

Alien languages

A notable subgenre of fictional languages are

alien language Alien languages, i.e. languages of extraterrestrial beings, are a hypothetical subject since none have been encountered so far. The research in these hypothetical languages is variously called exolinguistics, xenolinguistics or astrolinguistic ...

s, the ones that are used or might be used by putative

extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...

forms. Alien languages are subject of both

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and scientific research. Perhaps the most fully developed fictional alien language is the

of the

universe – a fully developed

. The problem of alien language has confronted generations of

writers; some have created fictional languages for their characters to use, while others have circumvented the problem through translation devices or other fantastic technology. For example, the

universe makes use of a '

universal translator A universal translator is a device common to many science fiction works, especially on television. First described in Murray Leinster's 1945 novella " First Contact", the translator's purpose is to offer an instant translation of any language. ...

', which explains why such different races, often meeting for the first time, are able to communicate with each other. Another more humorous example would be the Babel fish from ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...

'', an aurally-inserted fish that instantaneously translates alien speech to the speaker's native language. While in many cases an alien language is but an element of a fictional reality, in a number of science fiction works the core of the plot involves linguistic and psychological problems of communication between various alien species.

Visual alien languages

A further subgenre of alien languages are those that are visual, rather than auditory. Notable examples of this type ar
Sherman's Circular Gallifreyan
from

BBC's #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Purpose

Commercial fictional languages

Alien languages

Visual alien languages

Internet-based fictional languages

See also

References

External links