The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which writers create and utilize created languages in their works of fiction. Created languages are any languages that are invented, rather than formed naturally. They have had a much larger media presence with works such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings book and movie series popularizing them in the modern era. Created languages are a tool used by authors and developers to build a more engaging and fleshed out world for audiences. Such languages vary in complexity and depth, with appropriate amounts of natural linguistic phenomena incorporated. Both created speech and created writing systems reflect languages that their creators are familiar with. Incorporating language into a work is difficult at times, and requires a balance with audience understanding. How a language is used within its context is important to that balance. Forcing a language into a setting poses an obstacle to audiences, and fails to complete the objective of world-building. Past research indicates that the most effective and interesting languages are created through a thorough process regardless of complexity, which can be seen when consuming media. Analyzing these created languages and the media surrounding them offers valuable insight into those processes for writers of all skill levels, and gives audiences a finer filter for finding details in a story.
Epic stories like those seen in J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, Disney classics like Atlantis: The Lost Empire, H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, George Lucas’ Star Wars, and more modern video games like Tunic all share something in common: captivating settings that draw fans in. This is achieved through the use of an ingenious art form: created languages. Language in the real world is the foundation for communication and culture, with an undeniable importance in every aspect of life. Using a language unique to a fictional setting, made specifically to enhance the story and characters, creates a much more compelling world and narrative that captures audiences' interest. Whether the language is as simple as a mention in the background, or a fully fleshed constructed language (conlang), it provides a way for audiences to connect with the media. Natural languages, such as English and Mandarin, are complex and varied across the world.. When people are given the opportunity to add any amount of fantastical details and magical systems, there is an even wider field of possibilities. Some languages are clearly inspired and meant to sound like a specific mix of languages, such as Watership Down’s Lapine which is inspired by French and Arabic, or Dune’s Chakobsa, which is meant to sound like a future evolution of Arabic. Others are meant to sound as otherworldly or as magical as possible, such as Klingon and Na’Vi. Creating these languages is often a grueling process.Integrating them into their setting in a way that does not pose as an obstacle to audiences, while still fulfilling their purpose, can be even more difficult, and the process can quickly turn into a spiraling mess of poorly executed concepts. The questions to keep in mind are first, how “conlangers” (people who create conlangs) develop these languages to be interesting and cohesive, and second, how they apply them to the story to create a more fleshed out setting without making it indigestible for general audiences. These questions, through research from a wide field of experts, will be answered by analyzing the foundations of and inspiration from oral and written natural languages and linguistics, how unique fantasy elements are created and incorporated, and how conlangs are presented in media through various methods.
It is in the dialogue of a work that created languages are seen the most. Whether that be in a conversation observed by the protagonist or noted in the background, a phrase spoken in passing by a dwarf, or an old saying that has outlived the language it came from, the dialogue is where a conlang impacts a story the most. Whatever the instance, each word, when placed by a skilled writer, has a meaning and purpose. They can be used as a unique way to offer more details about a world and the context or circumstances of a story.
The impact the environment has on language, whether it exists and its severity, has been debated in more recent years. Originally, the theory among language researchers was that “language is presumed to be ecologically autonomous” (Everett et al 4). This belief has shifted, however, with more recent research. There have been several studies on the possible correlation between environmental conditions and the evolution of regional language, and the recent opinion in the field has been that the original theory was poorly supported (Everett et al). This research focuses specifically on the atmospheric impact on the larynx, otherwise known as the voice box or vocal chords. While a fictional species may lack similar anatomy to humans, a large number of vocalizing animals have a larynx, and the resulting sounds often follow similar patterns. When listening to someone speak a foreign language, there is typically a small amount of information one can glean. Listeners can often tell when someone is speaking a romance language, even if they can’t tell which. The common phonemes of a North European language might not align with those of an Asian language. It is well known that languages evolve and grow from one another. Some researchers, such as Caleb Everett, propose that a factor in that evolution is the conditions of the air in the environment. The developing theory is that cold, arid air would impact the larynx in a different way than warm, humid air. Dehydrated air affects the larynx and the chemical make-up of the substance coating it, specifically, according to Everett, an increase in sodium. Everett and his co-authors explain that the dehydration of the larynx impacts how well the vocal folds can vibrate, making certain phonemes more difficult to create clearly. The increased sodium levels also impact the elasticity of the vocal chords. Certain sounds also travel more efficiently through different atmospheres, a fact animals of all kinds seem to know. Languages in warmer, humid climates often have more vowels because they’re easier to hear than in cold, arid ones, which usually prefer consonants. Following that, a Scandinavian language such as Norwegian would sound vastly different from Hindi because of the climates they evolved from. Alternatively, one of the native languages in Tibet, Sherpa (Rahman and Baskaran 2), and a language common in the Caucuses of Georgia, Svan, (Tuite 7), have many common phonemes. Specifically, they both have a high number of obstruent consonants. Obstruent consonants are made by obstructing airflow in some way, and many researchers find a correlation between an increased amount of these consonants and drier air in the environment. Sonants, consonant sounds made by vibrating the vocal cords, are more common in warm, humid climates. Utilizing realistic science in created languages is both a challenge and a way to build out the world, and can help provide a starting point to build the language off of.
The scope of environmental impacts can expand beyond the sounds of a language, but to the words themselves. Language evolves as the speakers need it, and so the vocabulary of each language is dependent on what they need to communicate. An example provided by Megan Condis, a professor at Texas Tech, is that a speaker whose world is covered in ice wouldn’t have words for mud or grass, as they don’t perceive those things enough to form a whole word. (Condis, Sams 9). Vocabulary specifically is something that most people creating a language will focus on. It can be used to highlight characteristics of a species or group, depending on how deeply applied it is. For example, the film Avatar, directed by James Cameron, utilized a language called Na’vi to allow the audience to form an understanding of the alien species shown in the movie beyond the surface level. The creator of Na’vi, Paul Frommer, developed the vocabulary to fit the culture of the Na’vi people, as well as the world they lived in. The language, as pointed out by Condis, did not originally have a word for human-kind, as they would never naturally encounter each other. The word used in the film to describe humans is a compound word meaning “Sky People,” since that is where the Na’vi perceived humans to come from (Condis, Sams 9). The subjects that a language focuses on, rather than ignores, are another way writers and language makers can display information. While the idea that the Inuit-Aluet languages have hundreds of words for snow is mostly a myth born from the misunderstanding of polysynthetic languages, conlangers often build languages around a focus. Na’vi words center around the relationship between the natural and spiritual world, just as Lapine seems to revolve around the rabbit’s story-telling and folklore tradition. In an interview where people could ask two experts questions about created languages, Arika Okrent states that “on the idea that languages reflect what’s important to a culture, there is no question.” The rabbits who speak Lapine put a great emphasis on their folk-tales, which serve as a framework and explanation for their existence. Richard Adams, the author of Watership Down, needed to develop a specific vocabulary to cover the stories and their significance efficiently. Not all created languages have the extensive vocabulary of Na’vi and Tolkien’s Sindarin, and those that do not will need to focus on what vocabulary will be used and offer the most insight.
As languages evolve, they will always develop rules regarding speech patterns and meanings. They act as a framework for easy, clear communication of complex conversations, and develop as needed. Typically, those rules shift to be more strict and simple over time (Christiansen and Chater par. 11). The rules of each language's grammar may vary widely; however, those rules are always the key to concise and efficient communication between speakers.
The way words are arranged is often central to understanding what is being said. When speaking English, one would not say “Dogs she walks,” as a normal sentence, and anyone listening would likely have a harder time understanding. This is because English has a Subject-Verb-Object, shortened to SVO, word-order. Most modern languages follow either SVO word order (e.g. English and French) or Subject-Object-Verb, shortened to SOV, word-order (e.g. Japanese and Turkish), with about 80% using either. While the most common pattern is placing the subject at the beginning of a sentence, there are languages with the verb, and even more rarely the object, at the beginning. Deviating from the set word order in a fixed language either changes the meaning of the sentence or becomes ungrammatical. In some cases in English, the verb is moved to the front of a sentence to make a statement a command. “Students sit down” states what the students do; “sit down” commands the students to do something (Anderson et al). As a rule, the longer a language is around, the more strict its grammar is. Ancient Latin lacked any fixed word order, instead relying on suffixes to denote case. The Romance languages seen today however, follow a more set syntax, because just as grammar becomes stricter, it also tends to become simpler as the frequency of its use grows (Christiansen and Chater par 5-9). People favor the easier path, and simple language excels. Created languages made for a story tend to have a similar word order to the native language of the developer, as it is easier to parse and removes the possibility of confusion for general audiences. Having a solid rule for word order is one of the most important grammatical basics to include within a constructed language. Inflection is the change in a word’s form to mark tone, person, gender, tense, number, etc. Conjugation is for modifying verbs, while declension is for nouns. In English, this may look like adding -ed to past tense verbs and -ing to present tense verbs, or -s, -es, or s’ to denote plurality in a noun (Britannica). Some languages utilize inflection more than others, especially those with looser word order such as Latin. The cases used in natural languages are nominative, accusative, dative, ablative, genitive, vocative, locative, and instrumental. The case implies what role a noun has in the sentence, and can make the word order rules more flexible or easier to understand. In English there are few case declensions, and most are in pronouns. The words “he” and “him” are declensions, “he” being nominative and “him” being accusative. He runs to her, but she runs to him. There are no declensions for most common nouns in English, so an inflexible word order is important. “The dog chases the cat” is not the same as “the cat chases the dog.” Latin had no set word order, and declensions were crucial to creating a solid understanding of the phrase. Modern romance languages carry on the intense declension practices, despite evolving a more rigid syntax. This allows for added clarity. German also has more declensions, a trait lost in English, which can be applied to the article attached to them. For example, “den Hund jagt die Katze” and “die Katze jagt dem Hund” are the translated versions of the earlier English sentences, and can be written in multiple ways while having the same meaning.“Dem Hund jagt die Katze” still means “The cat chases the dog,” and is similar to “the dog is chased by the cat,” (Lewis) in English, without swapping the nominative and accusative roles. Cases make the relationship between objects and actions in a sentence more clear, and are a useful tool.
Natural languages usually do not have one standard version. Most languages have dialects, especially as the regions in which they are spoken expands. This can apply to constructed languages, though often it is not a priority or seen as particularly useful to the narrative. In natural languages, such as English, two people from two different places may speak and define words in completely different ways (e.g. American English word for “sweater” versus the British English word “jumper”). People on the American West Coast may refer to carbonated beverages as “pop” while people from the deeper south may call them “coke.” The differences may be more extreme, such as the differences between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish. Dialects provide information about a character with few words, and could be an incredible addition to a conlang. It is difficult to find examples of conlangs with distinct dialects, though they may be referenced in the context. A much more common route for creators to take is to create their own dialect of a natural language. There is debate on the legitimacy of created dialects as constructed languages within the field, as well as debate on the degree of development a created dialect must have to be considered substantial. Many people in the field of constructed languages consider Newspeak from George Orwell's 1987 a constructed language, despite being a more selective and modified English. This is because of the degree of development that went into creating Newspeak, and the narrative importance it has. The magical dialect in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is often not considered a created language or real dialect, despite having many original words and a noticeable variance in vocabulary. This is likely due to the lack of genuine development and established importance. The words spoken by the magical characters come across more as slang, which is not a created language on its own.
Language starts with speech. It is important to begin the process of conlanging with a foundation of what aspects of natural language should be included, and how they add onto the narrative.
Recorded language physically emerged sometime around 8000 to 3500 B.C.E. Writing systems, which are often referred to as orthographies, in natural languages are varied, and usually products of the environment and resources the speaking population has. Written language almost always develops after a spoken language, and is molded around the needs of that language and culture.
Writing systems, often referred to as orthographies, in natural languages are varied, and often products of the environment and resources the speaking population has. The methods of how characters interact with each other vary just as much. The main three types of orthographies seen in natural languages are logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic (Olson 1); however, there are many that use systems completely different or that are a modification of any of the three.
Logographic writing systems, such as Mandarin and Japanese Kanji, have characters with individual meanings, typically words. This makes for more compact writing, which is useful when resources like paper are not common or cheap, or if writing is a more revered art form. Inversely, it also includes an extensive amount of characters, which can be difficult to memorize fully. According to Olson, the English vocabulary has been recorded to have more than 500,000 words. The amount of characters is part of the reason Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn. A common trait among logographic writing systems is more complicated characters. As seen in Mark A Changizi and Shinsuke Shimojo’s paper on the complexity and redundancy of characters, the different characters in writing systems are “under selective pressure to be easy to read and write” (Changizi and Shimojo 1). They found that characters typically have an average of 3 strokes per character, using a sample of mostly alphabetic or syllabic systems, and are used in a somewhat combinational way. For example, the letter H and A in the roman alphabet both share a similar stroke in the middle, however have two distinctly different strokes on either side. A and V share two diagonal strokes, but the third stroke of A, as well as the inversion, differentiates them. Their findings conclude that the relationship between the amount of characters in an orthography and the complexity (number of strokes) of a character are related. For an orthography to have as many characters as a logographic system would require, a high number of strokes per character is needed for distinguishability(Changizi and Shimojo 5-6). This is not optimal for memorization, which is incredibly important for the survival of a language, which relies on continuous use. Since the creation of a logographic writing system requires a character for every word that would be used for any purpose, there are not many created languages utilizing them in media.
Syllabic writing systems, like Japanese Katakana and Hiragana, have characters that represent syllables. Some of the earliest examples of sound-based (or phonographic) writing systems had a syllabic structure, such as the Mycenaean script of Linear B. Syllables are easily distinguished units of speech, and therefore provide a strong foundation for orthographies (Olson 5). A specific type of syllabic orthography is a Consonantal writing system, or an Abjad. Each character represents consonants, while ignoring vowels (Ramoo 8). Ancient Egyptian and Hebrew are examples of such syllabic orthographies. Without vowels, there is some ambiguity to what exact morpheme is represented. As pointed out by Olson, however, this is not as big of a problem as it appears. In these cases, vowels are typically not crucial to the context and understanding of the language. In Hebrew, vowels are used to denote tense or other inflections, which can be marked in other ways, and are therefore not as important (Olson 7). A possible advantage pointed out by Dinesh Ramoo is that when listening to dialects of different languages, it is typically the vowels that are changed most drastically. For languages with few applied vowels, it makes sense for the few to be omitted and simplified, especially to add ease and better understanding among all speakers. Some Abjads do stray from the definition and apply diacritic marks or other graphemes, individual marks that represent a single unit of speech, to represent vowels when truly needed (Ramoo 9).
Alphabetic writing systems, like Cyrillic and Roman, have characters that represent individual sounds. Invented by the ancient Greeks, and the newest form of an orthography (Ramoo 10), alphabets have become one of the more easily recognizable writing systems, especially in the West. Syllables are the most easily recognizable segments of speech, but they can be broken down into phonemes, or individual sounds. The use of an alphabet is especially useful for languages where the combinability of characters to create a wide range of vastly different sounds is essential (Olson 7). These writing systems often have the most simple characters, close to the average of 3 strokes found by Changizi and Shimojo, as more characters are needed to create a single word. Many created languages utilize alphabetic systems, as it is something most people are familiar with, and allows pre-existing words to be used as a sort of base. This is especially common when a writing system is used primarily as encoded English, a common occurrence in video games or film where it only needs to serve as a visual tool.
Other types of orthographies that don’t fit within the main 3, but still important to note, are Abugida and Featural writing systems. Abugidas appear as a cross of alphabets and syllabaries with combinational consonant-vowel sequences. In an alphabet, vowels and consonants are equally prominent, while in an Abugida, the consonants are more important when differentiating words, similar to Hebrew and ancient Egyptian. The vowels themselves appear as additional, combinational marks on the consonantal characters and can be separated, not already set sequences like a syllabary. Examples include most of the Tibetan and South Asian languages, such as Sanskrit (Ramoo 11-16). Featural orthographies take the characteristics of phonemes and take them down to the most basic units and features. The most widely known and studied example of a featural writing system is Korea’s Hangul. All of the used phonemes have a mark that depicts a representation of how the sound is made. Vowels are easily recognized with simple, long horizontal or vertical lines, and consonants with more complicated shapes denoting the articulations needed to make the sound. In Hangul, the symbols are arranged in a way similar to an Abugida or Syllabary, with the sounds of a syllable being arranged into a block (Olson 8). Tengwar, from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, is a well known created featural orthography (Smith par. 3).
Diacritic marks are important to a lot of written languages, especially Tolkien’s Tengwar script. They can be used to modify a syllable, add vowels to consonant clusters, and imply intonation. They behave somewhat similarly to punctuation, but are more ingrained into the orthography and offer information on the words themselves, not the organization of the sentence. Diacritic marks include accent marks like those used in romanized Mandarin and Romantic languages, and umlauts like the ones in Germanic languages (Trask). Diacritic marks are how intonation is transcribed into writing, and would be critical to using a tonal language in a visual media.
Many writing systems have characters that do not follow the standard, as no writing system is completely pure. Functionality matters more than complete adherence to the rules of writing systems (Olson 9).
Beyond just the type of writing system a language utilizes, the characters themselves are incredibly important. This is also where most writers, or those intending to represent their language visually, approach with the most creativity. One of the most well known examples would be Tolkien’s Tengwar and Angerthas, the two writing systems that people see in The Lord of the Rings. Tengwar, as a featural language, has to have a connection between the sound and shape of each character. Each character is composed of two main parts, referred to as telco and luva, with additional diacritic marks called tehtar. The shape of each tengwa–single Tengwar character–while supposed to represent a value of sound, was stylized and created to Tolkien’s tastes and to match the aesthetics of the Elvish language (Smith par. 3-4).
Written language can be split into two categories, where characters represent sounds (phonological), and where characters represent meanings (non-phonological), such as Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Most modern written language is phonological, as it is more easily parsed by the human brain and allows better connection between written and spoken language. This includes alphabets, syllabaries, and abugidas. Ancient languages, like those found in Egypt and Mesopotamia, tended to be non-phonological, as most writing was for business purposes and did not need to connect with what was being spoken. Logographic languages are classified as non-phonological, as each character is representative of an entire concept. (Gerber par. 11-13)
The directionality and shape of characters is another important factor. Burmese, for example, has flowing, relatively short characters that were more easily written in the leaves used by scribes. Since paper was not viable in the humid climate, they had to use palm leaves. Straight, sharp lines would rip the leaves, rendering the writing useless (World Translation Center). The materials available in a region are crucial to the development of the written language. Places like Greece with access to clay and stone tables would develop angular, straight characters to be more easily etched and carved in hard, easily chipped materials.
As written language usually comes after spoken language, and is formed around the needs of speech, the written grammar is critical to conveying meaning in writing. A spoken sentence in English may use a change in intonation to indicate a question without “question words” like who, what, where, is, etc., but writing doesn’t have a sound, and therefore a question mark is used to indicate the sentence as a question. A lot of information is lost when transcribing spoken language, and written grammar is intended to capture as much of that missing information as possible.
Most of written grammar lies in punctuation. It is a mechanic that does not exist verbally, and serves to organize the words and add information not available due to the lack of audio cues. Periods, commas, question marks, exclamation marks, colons, em-dashes, and parentheses are all examples of punctuation marks used in English, and other languages that use the latin alphabet. These same marks may be used for different purposes across languages, such as Greek using a symbol similar to the English semicolon for a question mark. In some instances, such as that of early Arabic, punctuation marks were not necessary because of the structures of the words and conjugation (Brown par. 1). Most punctuation marks replace tone and other audible cues in communication, but some mark information not available in speech either, such as quotation marks and spaces, which aid in comprehension. What punctuation marks develop, just like for most aspects of language, are based on the specific needs of the spoken language. Some marks, such as the Jian Ge Hao, or “middle dot,” in modern Chinese develop to interact with other languages. Its main purpose is to separate parts of a foreign name, which is not a necessary thing to do to other Chinese names (Richards).
The way a created language looks or sounds can convey a lot of information, as well as create higher interest among consumers of the media. Tolkien’s Cirth, used by Dwarves, Men, and Orcs, is reminiscent of Norse Runes, while maintaining unique qualities. This gives readers and watchers something familiar to compare Tolkien’s character to, while remaining separate and immersive. The main role of a created language is to contribute to the context of a setting, to bring the story to life, as journalist Cody Mello-Klein and Linguistics professor Adam Cooper point out, and aesthetics are the easiest way to achieve that effect.
A large majority of created languages follow some points of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which, as pointed out by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is a misnomer and poor descriptor of the area covered in this theory. Reduced to its core, Whorfianism, proposed and defended by Edward Sapir, is the belief that language forms thought, and how one speaks is integral to how they think (Scholz 1). It is based off of a study, where speakers of different languages were asked to sort colored chips. Those who naturally speak a language such as English with six basic words for color, when asked to sort colored chips into piles based on their color, would make separate piles for red and orange, while a speaker of certain Filipino dialects, with only words for red, black, and white, would not. It is seen as either inane or highly implausible, as the notion that the language one speaks forms and dictates all thought is difficult to prove and rationalize in reality. The theory does have its merits, however, in creating fictional languages. Many authors use this idea in reverse, where certain characteristics of a language are showcased, and people can draw conclusions on the nature of the speakers. Following this idea, it is easy for writers to create an illustration of their character’s or world through just a few spoken words. For example, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, readers see the created language of “Parseltongue,” used by serpents and the select wizards naturally able to speak with them. The first time one reads about it, or hears it spoken in the movies, there is a wide understanding that this is not something meant to be used by the good side of the story. Snakes are historically portrayed as deceptive and cold in the media, and so it is easy for people to associate a language made to sound like one with evil. Audiences hear something they associate with evil, and assume the speaker must act evil. Because of this, audiences can understand, before it is blatantly revealed, when a character will be acting as an antagonist.
Some more examples of a form of Whorfianism used within fictional languages can be found abundantly in Science Fiction. The genre, commonly dealing with alien entities, whether literal species from a different planet or just humans moved past being easily recognizable, finds great importance in the use of other languages. One example used by Ria Cheyne, a researcher of contemporary literature and lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, is the Eloi from H.G Wells’s The Time Machine. The first impression of the Eloi’s speech is that it is akin to that of a young child, and so it is easy one can infer that they possess similar intelligence and behavior (Cheyne 396). Wells is able to give his readers insight towards exactly how the human race has evolved through the language they speak. Though most obvious when dealing with aliens or antagonistic species, the application of Whorfianism is not exclusive. Similar partnering of traits in species and their languages can be seen in Tolkien's languages of Sindarin and Quenya–used by elves–Lapine–used by rabbits in Watership Down by Richard Adams–and the language of the Runa and Jana in Mary Russel’s The Sparrow. The utilization of Whorfianism in created languages is widespread, and important to fulfilling the goal of creating a full setting.
The same sentiment for speech is applied to writing systems. Dorai Minath, a constructed language created by Alex Mason, was created to be used by dragons, and was meant to be scratched into hard surfaces. As such, it is a very angular and simple looking language, giving readers the ability to contextualize the history of the draconic people. The language is meant to look primal and unrefined, as it was created at a time in the history of Mason’s dragons where they were in possession of very rudimentary skills. Cirth is similar as it was developed with the intention of being carved into stone, however the Tolkien’s dwarvish language has a more artistic quality than that of Mason’s draconic, a fact that allows readers to make a conclusion on the importance of artisanal skills and craftsmanship among Tolkien’s dwarves. Elvish scripts in media typically have a very flowing, soft style, meant to convey the elegance the fantasy race usually embodies.
Language is a powerful tool to create a narrative with. In Tolkien’s world, Sindarin and Quenyan have a history associated with them that is intertwined with the stories he tells, offering explanation to relationships between characters and events. The interactions between the languages themselves also gives more context to the world, allowing fans to infer more information without details being thrown into the writing unnecessarily (Coker 3). In Disney’s Atlantis, the language inscribed and spoken by the Atlanteans gives insight towards their cultural history and the importance of spirituality through its focuses and appearances in spiritually significant places. In Watership Down, the rabbits’ language is focused on the stories they are told, which creates a sense of importance around them, and gives readers more information about how the characters think and why they act in certain ways. Language is also good at displaying important cultural traditions a fictional species may have. With Lapine, readers understand the stories the rabbits tell to be equivalent to their religion, and gives storytelling traditions more significance. A rabbit called El-ahrair, which translates to “Prince with a Thousand Enemies,” is also much more interesting for an audience to read about, and is much more memorable. There is also more opportunity to learn about an individual through how they speak. Similar to how language is used in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn to depict certain aspects of a character, the way a language is used by a character can offer unique insight, or establish details in a more artistic way. A character who uses a lot of phrases from a language anachronic to the setting feels more alive and vivid than a character who is simply described as being old.
Using the created language in dialogue is typically the riskiest option. Characters speaking in a created language adds to the immersion of the story, and can make fans more interested, however some people view them as roadblocks to understanding and enjoying the story. Having characters speak an unknown language requires either translating the speech–which can be done easily in movies with subtitles, but is more difficult in media like books–or leaving the information unknown to the audience.
In most cases, it is advantageous to provide translations or context to unknown dialogue. Chris Winkle, an editor and enthusiast of understanding how stories work outlines the easiest way to make dialogue in created languages work: teach the language, use the perspective of an ignorant character, use the right words, and make the words stick. Inserting dialogue into the conversation in a language that the audience has no context or understanding destroys the immersion, contradicting a key part of the language’s purpose (Winkle 2018). Language creators will usually focus on proper nouns, fictional things, or important concepts, as those are the words that readers find the most novel or interesting, and are most efficient for conveying information. It is also difficult to write dialogue in a fictional language as the words have to be romanized, and can become more complex and less interesting. This is another instance where audible dialogue is an easier format for the audience to parse. In Watership Down, Richard often uses footnotes to add translations to Lapine words, as well as information that may be important for context. This method is a controversial topic among fans and authors, with varying opinions on the effectiveness offered. Many people believe that reading the footnotes should not be required to understand the language and understanding should be given in the context, while others find it a less-intrusive, ingenious way to explain to readers what words are and the significance behind them. He also uses in-text definitions, usually to add clarification to concepts such as the rabbits’ sense of time (Richard 28).
Leaving the audience in the dark about the translations of a created language is usually used in the Science Fiction genre, but can be applied to a few circumstances. In the Star Wars movies, it is not uncommon for a species to speak a language that is not translated at all, or only minorly by other characters. Chewbacca, a major side character in some of the movies, doesn’t speak a single English line, but he communicates and is at times understood by other characters, even when the audience doesn’t understand (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope).
Writing and dialogue are not the only ways to represent created languages in media. Visuals are often the most used form of displaying a constructed language, as they are applicable in almost every common media. In movies, such as Atlantis and the Lord of the Rings movies, this is written documents like an inscribed wall or a map. Visuals such as this are usually objects of importance to the speakers of the language, and offer secondary information to the writing. The One Ring in the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring movies has an inscription on the inside, the writing giving insight to Elvish origins of the ring, as well as making the object more interesting to viewers (The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring 1:24:22). Items with a created language written on them will become more important to the people watching. Movies, video games, and art, as visual media, are the easiest way to implement this strategy. A book may have pages before or after the writing actually starts that show an important map or document to the story, which can be written in the created language. Some editions of the Watership Down books include a map (Richard), which has the Lapine names for things. Special editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have Cirth writing on the covers on sides of pages, which is not directly in the story but creates more interest among the readers. Visuals are rather easy to implement, as they do not rely solely on prior knowledge of the language to convey important information. If the writing is important to the story, it is often easy to provide a translation, especially if following Winkle’s outline and following an ignorant character. In chapter two of the Fellowship of the Rings book, Gandalf shows Frodo the inscription on the ring. In the book, the Tengwar script is shown, but a reader would likely not understand it. Underneath the inscription, the story can continue, and Gandalf can explain to Frodo –who does not read Elvish Tengwar– what the inscription means, and by proxy explain it to the readers (Tolkien 66).
The creation and application of created languages serve a purpose to create interest in and understanding of a fictional world. Conlanger's utilize an understanding of natural linguistics and creativity to develop interesting, cohesive languages that fill out the setting and add important details for audiences to pick up on. There are many ways to approach the task, though most conlangers who are developing a language to use in a fictional setting start with a specific detail they wish to incorporate into the language, whether that be a specific way it should sound or look, a natural language it is inspired by, or an important detail to the lives or culture of the fictional group who will be speaking it. Understanding the rules and science behind natural linguistics is key to creating well developed languages. This includes how and why language starts developing, how spoken and written language work, and how the setting impacts these factors. Once a language is developed, it is important that it is incorporated into the story in a way that both makes sense for the medium, the story, and the audience. Applying a constructed language excessively or inefficiently subtracts from the overall narrative, and creates a story audiences can’t understand or connect well to. Knowing how to both create and apply a created language is an art form, and a great way to elevate the setting of a story.
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Cheyne, Ria. “Created Languages in Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, 2008, pp. 386–403. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25475175. Accessed 14 Jan. 2025.
Condis, Megan. “Building Languages, Building Worlds: An Interview with Jessica Sams.” Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, vol. 4, no. 1, 2016, pp. 150–61. JSTOR, doi.org/10.5250/resilience.4.1.0150. Accessed 21 Mar. 2025.
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Everett, Caleb, et al., Language evolution and climate: the case of desiccation and tone, Journal of Language Evolution, Volume 1, Issue 1, January 2016, Pages 33–46, doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzv004
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Directed by Chris Columbus. Performances by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Harris, and Bonnie Wright, Warner Bros 2002. (i do not affiliate or support JK Rowling or anything related to her. This was a requirement in this paper as I had to ensure there was a semblance of relatability that others with no understanding of linguistics would connect with, and unfortunately this is a very well known franchise with a very well known "language." I used a library copy of the movie and books to ensure my quotes were correct. I gagged having to touch and watch it.)
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