Top 10 Fictional Languages

“Kolik jazyků znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem.“
“You live a new life for every new language you speak.If you know only one language, you live only once.” (Czech proverb)

Learning a new language can be tough, and takes a lot of time and effort. The only way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the lingo you choose. Although there are a plenty of real languages to communicate with one another but this doesn’t account a geekkind’s appetite to amplify their conception to the nth amount either just to imitate the characters they love or leave behind the normal people out of the twist. This list looks at some of the most fascinating fictional languages that one can really learn.

10. Nadsat

In his 1962 dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess created a slang type language called Nadsat. The language is a mix of modified Slavic and Russian as well as words simply invented by the author himself. Nadsat is basically English, with some transliterated words from Russian. It also contains influences from Cockney and the King James Bible, some words of unclear origin, and some words that Burgess invented.

Terms such as droog meaning friend or Bog for God are occasionally still used by college students who wish to annoy or mystify those around them. A comprehensive Nadsat lexicon lists the terms used in the book with their origins.

9. Parseltongue

The best child book of this decade would be the “Harry Potter” series. Now, all the readers of this series must have come across the word “Parseltongue”. It is said to be the language of snakes and any one who can speak this language is called “Parselmouth”.  It is, in the common mind, associated with Dark Magic and those possessing the ability to speak it are very rare. To non-speakers, it sounds like a series of hisses, but Parselmouths hear it in their native language.

Although finding places to actually learn the language were pretty difficult to track down. Although the legends holds that this ability can be inherited and hence is present in the genes but Parseltongue can be learned, but while the other languages have dictionaries, it seems like you are left with this English-to-Parseltongue translator.

8. Atlantean

Now guess what? The Atlantean language is a constructed language for Disney’s film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The language was intended as a possible “mother language” and was therefore invented to have Indo-European word stock with its own grammar.

The Atlantean language (Dig Adlantisag) is a historically constructed, artistic language put together by Marc Okrand for Disney’s 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and associated media, The Atlantean language is therefore based both on historic reconstructions or realities as well as on the elaborate fantasy/science fiction of the Atlantis: The Lost Empire mythos. Here are the fictional bases upon which the Atlantean language was created: Atlantean is the “Tower of Babel language”, the “root dialect” from which all languages descended. It has existed without change since sometime before 100,000 B.C., within the First or Second Age of Atlantis until the present. Surprisingly enough, this language has command over its own vocabulary and grammar and can be learned at Atlantean Language Institute.

7. Na’vi

Na’vi is a constructed language spoken by the fictional indigenous race (the Na’vi) on Pandora in James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar. The language was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at USC with a doctorate in linguistics. Na’vi was designed to fit James Cameron’s conception of what the language should sound like in the film, to be realistically learn-able by the fictional human characters of the film, and to be pronounceable by the actors, but to not closely resemble any single human language.

When the film was released in 2009, Na’vi had a growing vocabulary of about a thousand words, but understanding of its grammar was limited to the language’s creator. As of April 2010, there is a growing community of Na’vi language fans. Websites like Learn Na’vi feature dictionaries, basic learning materials, and discussion forums.

6. Aklo

Aklo is a secret language, possibly an artificial cipher or one used by a non-human race, associated with the writing of forbidden texts and evil cultists. Aklo was invented by Arthur Machen in his 1899 story “The White People.” It was later used in the works of H. P. Lovecraft who was a great admirer of Machen’s work, appearing in his Cthulhu Mythos stories “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Haunter of the Dark.”
Aklo is not just an alien language, but a key that opens doors inside the human mind. Alan Moore’s version of Aklo contains certain trigger words or phrases which, when spoken in the right order while the listener has entered a different state of mind, usually reached through drugs, have a deep and permanent impact on the person.

There is a number of sites you can google to learn Aklo. Since it is only used fleetingly and by a wide range of authors, there is no set grammar or vocabulary, and it is unclear just what languages from which it draws its most influences.

5. Simlish

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Simlish is a fictional language featured in EA Games’ Sim series of games. It debuted in SimCopter, and has been especially prominent in The Sims games. The Sims development team created the unique Simlish language by experimenting with fractured Ukrainian, French, Latin, Finnish, English and Tagalog.

There is a website which teaches spoken and written Simlish, which 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.

4. Newspeak

Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel by Orwell, it is described as being “the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year”. Orwell included an essay about it in the form of an appendix ⁱn which the basic principles of the language are explained. Newspeak root words served as both nouns and verbs, which allowed further reduction in the total number of words. Newspeak is closely related to English. The Newspeak term for the English language is Oldspeak. Oldspeak is intended to have been completely eclipsed by Newspeak before 2050.

Perhaps it is the easiest fictional language to learn, geeks have made a Wiktionary (NS Dictionary) for it and Amazon provides multiple books for those who are eager to learn.

3. Klingon

The Klingon language is the constructed language spoken by the fictional Klingons in the Star Trek universe. Deliberately designed by Marc Okrand to be “alien”, it has a number of typologically uncommon features. The language’s basic sound, along with a few words, was first devised by actor James Doohan (“Scotty”) for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Its vocabulary, heavily centered on Star Trek-Klingon concepts such as spacecraft or warfare, can sometimes make it cumbersome for everyday use. Klingon was subsequently developed by Okrand into a full-fledged language.

Over years, it has got so well developed that there is a Klingon Language Institute (KLI) in Pennsylvania, USA , that holds a yearly seminar to provide a platform for new people to learn the language, and existing aficionados to discuss it, making its fans (no offense) the dorkiest nerds around.

2. Esperanto

Esperanto is noteworthy for being one of the most successful constructed languages in history. It is the most widely spoken constructed auxiliary language. Although it was created by one man Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof in 1880s, the world now accepts it as an actual language. The word esperanto means “one who hopes” in the language itself. Today, it is estimated that there are between one hundred thousand and two million fluent Esperanto speakers, and between 200-2000 native speakers.

Esperanto is also the language of instruction in one university, the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj in San Marino. There is evidence that learning Esperanto may provide a good foundation for learning languages in general. Its vocabulary is mostly derived from the Romance and, to a lesser extent, the Germanic languages. Experanto a language so effortless to learn it has caught on with many people and can be found on Google searchable websites through an Esperanto portal.

1. Elvish and the Languages of Arda

And who can forget Elvish – the inspiration for this post. J. R. R. Tolkien created many languages, which eventuated in the creation of a mythology, complete with races, to speak the tongues he had constructed and used in his legendarium, including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. His interest was primarily philological, and he said his stories grew out of his languages. The languages were the first thing Tolkien created for his mythos, starting with what he originally called “Qenya”, the first primitive form of Elvish. This was later called Quenya (High-elven) and is one of the two most complete of Tolkien’s languages (the other being Sindarin, or Grey-elven). The phonology, vocabulary and grammar of Quenya and Sindarin are inspired by Finnish and Welsh, respectively. In addition to these two, he also created several other (partially derived) languages but Tolkien’s elvish is definitely a full-fledged language.

It actually is a really beautiful sounding “language.” Therefore, a number of books are available at Amazon to learn the grammar and syntax of this subject and English to Elvish Dictionary is also available for those who are serious about it.