Geek Speak


Wikipedia defines a conlang as follows:
...is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally. There are many possible reasons to create a constructed language: to ease human communication (see international auxiliary language and code); to bring fiction or an associated constructed world to life; for linguistic experimentation; for artistic creation; and for language games.

This is a niche that cries out to geeks! Conlangs have been developed for many purposes. In the last few decades, languages developed specifically for science fiction and fantasy genre movies, books, and games. It has become quite the art form! Many of the movies or television series now hire linguists to write the conlang to add to the story.

I touched on Newspeak (Orwell's 1984), the Sapir-Whorf theory, Nadsat (A Clockwork Orange), and revitalizing dead or dying languages: From Elvish to Klingon Exploring Invented Languages.

I mentioned the Tenctonse language (Alien Nation), Pitman Shorthand, Esperanto, Ido, Vulcan (Star Trek), Na'vi (Avatar), The Divine Language (The Fifth Element, and Encantadia in: Dictionary of Made-Up Languages: From Elvish to Klingon, The Anwa (Real) Origins of Invented Lexicons

We have all sampled a little Klingon and touched on a bit of Esperanto, but there are other obscure packets of geekdom that just must be noted. The languages below are a sample of some of the less talked about. Some, like Na'vi are thriving, while others, like The Divine Language, have probably been developed as far as they are going to.


www.dothraki.org
Dothraki Language, George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones). They even have a nice PDF with the Unofficial Dothraki Dictionary. There is also a PDF of the Dothraki Wiki that I would strongly advise reading. There are tutorials to help the beginner as well!

The language Enchanta is spoken by the denizens of the Fillipinos series Encantadia.

Wikipedia has a quick introduction at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanta
An even quicker intro is at:
http://www.gothic.net/boards/showthread.php?t=1422

http://erkelzaar.tsudao.com/2002movie/eloipoems.htm

Eoli is the language spoken by the Eloi in the The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. while there isn't a lot of source language, many fans have gone through what is available and really dug into it! There are language and poems.

There is discussion as to the differences between the 2002 movie and the 1960 movie... I haven't looked all that deeply into the issue that has some up in arms.

A brief overview at: http://timemachine.wikia.com/wiki/Eloi_Language When the site is up, it is considered the "best source": www.langmaker.com/eloi.htm

Eunoia is spoken by Taelons in the television series Earth: Final Conflict.

The best reference I've run into is a brutal quick introduction at: http://www.volgota.com/goutsoullac/taelon-language-eunoia

118 letter Kryptonese alphabet.

in 2000, D.C. changed from Kryptonese to Kryponian. Kryptonian symbols one-for-one with characters from the language spoken by the buying public in each market country.

Linguist Darren Doyle unofficial:
www.kryptonian.info
www.omniglot.com/writing/kryptonian.php
http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Kryptonian

The fans of this language have been busy. At last count, there are approximately 1,500 words which leads up to 4,000 words if the variations are included.

http://naviteri.org/
http://learnnavi.org/ (extensive with dictionary)
http://dict-navi.com/en/ (online dictionary)

Don't like the languages mentioned? Become all the geek you can be, write your own language! Start at zompist.com/kit.html.

You might also want to visit http://www.inthelandofinventedlanguages.com/. Arika Okrent wrote a brilliant book about conlangs and gives a wonderful overview of the history of conlangs. Her book is an absolute gem! Her website lists 500 of the approximately 1000 that she discovered. The site allows the visitor to see samples of those languages.

This page sourcecode was last updated: August 27, 2013




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