Fantasy and fiction
Constructed Languages and Naming Languages
At a glance
A constructed language, or conlang, is a language someone has invented on purpose. Famous examples for fiction include Tolkien's Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, Marc Okrand's Klingon for Star Trek, David J. Peterson's Dothraki and High Valyrian for HBO's Game of Thrones, and Paul Frommer's Na'vi for Avatar. Esperanto, published by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, was built for a different job: to be an easy second language for real people. Many writers need only a naming language, a consistent set of sounds and a few word roots, rather than a full grammar.
- Tolkien's two main Elvish languages
- Quenya (High-elven) and Sindarin (Grey-elven)
- Klingon
- Marc Okrand; The Klingon Dictionary published 1985
- Dothraki
- David J. Peterson, chosen through the Language Creation Society for HBO
- Na'vi
- Paul Frommer, University of Southern California, for James Cameron's Avatar
Languages and words from real works, and a naming language of our own
| Name | Meaning or origin | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Quenya Tolkien, Elvish | High-elven, one of Tolkien's two main Elvish languages. An early form was spelt Qenya. [1] | Recorded |
| Sindarin Tolkien, Elvish | Grey-elven. Earlier conceived as Noldorin, and before that Goldogrin or Gnomish. [1] | Recorded |
| Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo Tolkien, Quenya | Frodo's greeting to the Elves in Woody End, most readers' first sight of Quenya. [1] | Recorded |
| khal, arakh Dothraki, from the novels | Two of the few Dothraki words George R. R. Martin put in the books. [5] | Recorded |
| khaleesi, khalasar Dothraki, from the novels | Words Martin coined. Peterson aimed to stay faithful to what the books already had. [5] | Recorded |
| High Valyrian Game of Thrones | Martin invented only a few words of it; Peterson built the full language for the TV series. [5] | Recorded |
| Klingon Star Trek | Created by the linguist Marc Okrand; its sounds all exist in real languages, but the mix is unusual. [4] | Recorded |
| pIqaD Klingon | A Klingon writing system based on glyphs used in set decoration. Okrand's own system uses Latin letters. [4] | Recorded |
| Na'vi Avatar | The language of Pandora's inhabitants, created and still added to by Paul Frommer. [6] | Recorded |
| Esperanto International auxiliary language | Published by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 as an easy shared second language, not for fiction. [7] | Recorded |
| Verdurian Mark Rosenfelder's conlang | The author of the Language Construction Kit's own invented language, used as a worked example. [8] | Recorded |
| Talren Our naming language | Built from our invented roots tal 'stone' + ren 'river': a town by a rocky river. | Invented |
| Renmara Our naming language | ren 'river' + mara 'bright'. Same roots, same sound rules, so the two names feel related. | Invented |
- Recorded Found in historical records.
- Invented An original name, made for this site.
Tolkien: the languages came first
Tolkien's Elvish languages are the best-known conlangs in fiction. Quenya (High-elven) and Sindarin (Grey-elven) are the two main ones, and most of the non-English names of people and places in his books come from them.[1] He had been building them for nearly forty years before The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in 1954, and he wrote that the stories were made to give the languages a world, rather than the other way round.[1]
His tastes shaped the sounds. In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden he described a lifelong fascination with Welsh names and the thrill of finding a Finnish grammar, which made his own language heavily Finnish in sound and structure.[2] He also gave the Elvish languages invented histories, with older forms changing into newer ones, just as Old English became modern English.[1]
In a 1931 lecture, published as 'A Secret Vice', Tolkien argued that the urge to invent languages is common and is a legitimate part of the drive towards fantasy.[3]
Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi
Klingon. Klingons in early Star Trek spoke English. For the third film the producers asked the linguist Marc Okrand to create a real language. He did not base it on any one language; its sounds all occur in human languages, but the combination is unusual. The Klingon Dictionary came out in 1985.[4]
Dothraki and High Valyrian. George R. R. Martin has said he is no linguist. He used only a handful of Dothraki words, such as khal and arakh, and made up only a few words of High Valyrian. When HBO filmed the series, the producers asked the Language Creation Society, which chose David J. Peterson's proposal. Peterson kept to the evidence in the books, such as word order and adjectives after nouns, and built a full working language from them.[5]
Na'vi. Paul Frommer, a professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, created Na'vi for James Cameron's Avatar and still publishes new words and grammar notes on his blog.[6]
Esperanto: a different goal
Esperanto is a useful contrast. L. L. Zamenhof published it in 1887 in the hope that a shared second language would help different peoples understand each other. It was not meant to replace anyone's first language. It has no grammatical gender and no irregular verbs, and is spelt as it sounds.[7]
A language for fiction has the opposite aim. It should feel foreign and fit one imagined culture, as Klingon was meant to sound as alien as the Klingons looked while staying pronounceable for actors.[4] Esperanto, by contrast, draws most of its vocabulary from European languages Zamenhof knew well, such as Latin, French, German and Russian.[7]
Naming language or full language?
A full conlang has sounds, grammar, a large vocabulary and often a writing system. Most stories never need that. A naming language is a smaller kit: a set of sounds, rules for how syllables fit together, and a stock of roots and endings. Mark Rosenfelder's Language Construction Kit uses the term and notes that tools such as prefixes, suffixes and compounds are useful 'even if you want nothing more than a naming language'.[8]
Martin's books show this in practice. A few consistent words gave Dothraki a flavour on the page, and the full language was only needed when actors had to speak it.[5]
Rosenfelder also warns that working backwards, inventing words as needed and a grammar afterwards, leads to inconsistency.[8]
Building a simple naming language
This is writing advice based on the sources above, not a rule:
- Pick the sounds first. Rosenfelder suggests working on the sounds before the spelling, then spelling them simply.[8]
- Make a short list of roots with meanings, such as our invented tal 'stone' and ren 'river'.
- Combine them by fixed rules, the way real place-names put a describing word before a word for the kind of place.
- Write the rules down so later names follow them.
Names built this way, like our Talren and Renmara, sound related because they share roots and sounds, even if readers never learn what they mean.