Buzz
Throughout history, people have created their own languages – sometimes to obscure a true meaning, or to deepen a narrative (as seen in The Lord of the Rings). This list explores some of the most captivating (and entertaining) fictional languages.
10. Alienese
Alienese is a group of made-up languages that frequently appear, often as graffiti, in the background of the animated series Futurama. The first one translates directly into English, but the second one is more intricate; its alphabet is based on a rule where 'the next letter is determined by adding up all the previous letters plus the current one.' Fans have devoted time to deciphering these codes and uncovering extra, hidden jokes within the show.
9. Parseltongue
In the Harry Potter series, Parseltongue is the serpent's language, understood only by humans known as Parselmouths, a rare gift. This language can be spoken by Salazar Slytherin and his heirs, including Voldemort, who transferred the ability to Harry when he attempted to kill him. J.K. Rowling explained that she chose the name Parseltongue from an ancient term for someone with mouth-related issues. To those who don't understand it, it sounds like a series of hissing noises, but Parselmouths perceive it in their own native tongue.
8. Aklo
Aklo is a constructed language often linked to the writing of mystical or forbidden texts. It was first introduced by Arthur Machen in his 1899 short story “The White People,” where two men studying the nature of Evil read the diary of a girl written in Aklo. The language is notably used in other literary works; H.P. Lovecraft incorporated it into his Cthulhu Mythos, particularly in “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Haunter of the Dark.” Alan Moore also utilized it in his story, The Courtyard, where Aklo serves not only as an alien tongue but also as a tool that unlocks the human mind. Since it appears sporadically across various authors' works, it lacks a fixed grammar or vocabulary, and its linguistic influences remain uncertain.
7. Mangani
Mangani is the ape language from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, and it is also the term the apes use to refer to themselves. The language is described as consisting of deep, guttural sounds that represent basic concepts and nouns. However, Burroughs' written version of Mangani is far more intricate, using real words that resemble the pronunciation of many African languages native to the region where the novels are set. The recently discovered Bili Ape has been compared to the Mangani in terms of its size and environment.
6. Newspeak
Yes, the language dreaded by high school seniors everywhere. Created by George Orwell for his dystopian novel 1984, Newspeak was designed by the fictional authoritarian Party to solidify its control over the people. It is based heavily on English, but its vocabulary continuously diminishes to eliminate words that express concepts of freedom, rebellion, or independent thought. Its primary aim is to remove ambiguity in language by making one word represent an entire idea, such as transforming the verb “think” into a noun and verb. Words with opposite meanings are merged with prefixes or suffixes, like turning “bad” into “ungood.” This language is thought to have been inspired by Esperanto, which also forms new words by adding prefixes and suffixes. Since I couldn't find a good clip of someone speaking Newspeak, I’ve included the national anthem of Oceania from the film adaptation, which is sung in English.
5. Nadsat
Invented by author Anthony Burgess, Nadsat is the idiomatic language spoken by the teenagers in A Clockwork Orange. The word itself comes from a transliteration of the Russian word for “teen.” It is a vernacular speech, composed by the youth counterculture; it is basically English, with some transliterated words from Russian, patterns from Cockney rhyming slang, the King James bible, and words invented by Burgess himself. All nadsat words are concrete, lacking the complexity to discuss a subject such as philosophy. The author intended this to show the shallow nature of the juveniles’ minds. In the video above you can hear the main character (Alex) speaking in Nadsat.
4. Simlish
Simlish is the spoken language of the Sims, first heard in SimCopter, but most prominently featured in The Sims, Sims 2, and Sims 3. In order to avoid the cost of recording repetitive dialogue and translating it, the project director had the voice actors improvise a gibberish language. The end result was that players were able to fill in their own dialogue, and imagine the character interactions more realistically than a computer could simulate. Soon, the games had songs sung in Simlish, and many famous recording artists have since re-recorded some of their tracks for various Sims games and expansions. Written Simlish, glimpsed in reading materials and on television, is a combination of the Wingdings font and Zodiac symbols, but have no grounding in real grammar. All other games made by Sims genre creator Will Wright employ Simlish as a language. The video above is Lily Allen singing her song Smile in Simlish. You can spend hours on youtube looking up some of the many famous singers who have made a simlish version of their songs – such as Kajagoogoo – Too Shy. The Ting-tings even recorded a song in simlish for their album “We started nothing”.
3. Languages of Arda
The term above refers to the various fictional languages crafted by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings and his other Middle-Earth works. Tolkien's aim was to provide real linguistic depth to names and places, an aspect he felt was often overlooked in fantasy and science fiction. The two most developed languages in this linguistic family are Quenya (High-Elvish, featured in the video clip above) and Sindarin. Quenya, much like Latin, is an ancient language still used as an official language in Middle-Earth. In written form, Quenya often includes accents on almost every vowel, along with the use of the dieresis (two dots above a letter). While Quenya and Sindarin draw heavy inspiration from Finnish and Welsh, as they evolved, the influence gradually diminished. The intricate depth of these two languages is evident, not only in their impact on Middle-Earth’s culture but also on its many other languages. What’s even more remarkable is the vast number of languages Tolkien developed for his world, with each race having its own variations, dialects, and offshoots. Tolkien’s linguistic achievements highlight the immense potential of fictional languages and underscore the crucial role language plays in building a society.
Contributor: antmansbigxmas
2. Klingonese
Qapla’! The Klingon language from Star Trek is now a nearly complete language system. First introduced in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), its sound was initially created by actor James Doohan (Scotty). Paramount Pictures later enlisted linguist Marc Okrand to develop the language further, and he intentionally made it sound ‘alien’. The first Klingon dictionary appeared in 1985, followed by other works like Klingon phrasebooks. The language even saw translations of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, inspired by a memorable line from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: 'Shakespeare is best read in the original Klingon'. Okrand’s work was influenced by Native American languages, while the language’s tendency to form long noun chains (such as 'gun and sword and spear') is derived from Sanskrit. By 2006, Klingon had earned the title of the most spoken fictional language in the world.
1. Esperanto
Esperanto, the only authentic language on this list, stands out as one of the most successfully created languages in history. It was first outlined by L.L. Zamenhof in 1887 in his book, Unua Libro, published under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto. The term 'esperanto' translates to 'one who hopes' in the language itself. Today, estimates suggest that there are between one hundred thousand and two million fluent speakers of Esperanto, with roughly 200 to 2000 native speakers. Services like Google and Wikipedia offer content in Esperanto, and it is the medium of instruction at the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj in San Marino. Esperanto's grammar is strongly influenced by Indo-European languages, with its vocabulary primarily drawn from Romance languages, and to a lesser extent, Germanic ones.
