Conlangs

Ahb

The language used on the Japanese animated TV shows Banner of the Stars and Crest of the Stars; these shows feature a human race or subspieces called the Ahb who have used their genetic strengths to gain control of space transport for themselves. The TV shows feature Ahb language and Ahb script. Apparently, the shows are derived from a series of Japanese novels, but I don't think they've been translated into English. Unfortunately, there is no site dedicated to the language yet. [Hiroyuki Morioka]

Ailurin

The language spoken by cats in Diane Duane's novels, The Book of Night with Moon and To Visit the Queen, both of which include glossaries. [Diane Duane]

Amtorian

[Edgar Rice Burroughs]

Ancient Language, The

This language is the Ancient Language of Christopher Paolini's Eragon. It is spoken by the Elves and used in magic by Shades, Dragon Riders and other wizardly people. [Christopher Paolini]

Ancient Tongue of the Wise

This is the only known language created by the game programmer Mike Singleton. [Mike Singleton]

Ape (Mangani)

Mangani is the language of the Great Apes that raise Tarzan. Besides being in the novels and films, the language has even shown up on McDonald's Happy Meal packages (marketing the Disney Tarzan movie). [Edgar Rice Burroughs]

Atlantean

The language of Disney's animated film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The Atlantean language was developed by Marc Okrand, creator of Klingon, and spoken by Leonard Nimoy (Spock!) among others. [Marc Okrand]

Auld Elvish

[Harvard Lampoon]

Darmok

Darmok is a language that foiled the Universal Translator in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, because all statements consist of allusions to old legends. [Raphael Carter]

Dinosaur Language

In the game world of StarFox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet, this language has been spoken on Dinosaur Planet for thousands of years, since their first encounter with off-worlders. Before that, they got by with grunts and roars: a few still do, but most have adopted this relatively new language, which is derived from English by a substitution cipher.

D'ni

D'ni is the language of the computer game Riven (sequel to Myst). Also see the RivenGuild site. [Richard Watson]

Draconic

Published in Dragon #284 (Jun 2001). "Draconic is a language of hard consonants and sibilants that usually sounds like hissing when spoken. It includes sounds that sound very snake-like to humans, including: /sj/, /ss/, and /sv/. It also includes a sound similar to a creature clearing its throat, like the German 'ach'. Mr. Reynolds wrote that words which modify other words can be place before, or after, the words they modify, however the most important word is always placed before, and sometimes, for added emphasis, might be added after, as well. So, a dragon that wanted to say a big, black, evil dragon was coming near...might say: Malsvir darastrix turalisj vutha gethrisj leirith [evil dragon big black go near]." [Sean K. Reynolds & Owen K.C. Stephens]

Dwarven Pidgin

Published in Dragon #278 (Dec 2000), page 44. "Dwarven is a language of low vowels and hard consonants... Mr. Reynolds suggested that the Dwarves laid great importance on proper names, which translates to how they use nouns. Dwarven nouns are usually listed first, followed by a string of adjectives. Often smaller words are combined into larger ones, even if one of the words is a name. Sometimes, words that would be excessively long or confusing are broken into smaller, compound words. For example: 'Gimli, brave in war, loyal friend, with the adamantine greataxe Hurkuk'... Gimli kurnzarnnar mervar nos hurkuk farnyrgumdek. [Sean K. Reynolds]

Eloi

Used in the 2002 remake of H.G. Well's The Time Machine. [John Logan]

Elven

Published in Dragon #279 (Jan 2001), page 56. "Elven consists of mainly open vowels and soft consonants with few hard sounds. It has lilting flow that is rather musical.... modifying words can be put before, or after, the word they modify, depending on the importance the writer or speaker puts on them. For example, if a writer wanted to describe how the moonlight reflected a hero's magic sword like 'liquid pieces of silver', emphasizing the moon theme, he might write: Felosia nodel ivae lerret mithral kerym don alus [Felosia's moon light magic mithral sword silver liquid]." [Sean K. Reynolds]

Furbish

The electronic pet known as the Furby speaks its own simple language, but it still won't purr like a Tribble. [Dave Hampton]

gá'rDëMy

The language doesn't use capital letters at the beginning of names or sentences, but for the pronunciation of the following vowel. Almost every consonant is pronounced in another way after an apostrophe (which is a transcription). For example, g is pronounced like in ghost, but 'g like in the Welsh Llanfair or the German Woche. Another uniqueness of this language is the use of the dual. Singular is used for one person, dual for two and plural for three or more. [Geert Rinkel]

Gargish

The language of the gargoyles in the Ultima 6 and 7 computer games. The language is more developed than you would expect for a game, and it features an interesting "phonabet" (an alphabetic writing system structured to have its symbols show the phonetic features of its sounds). [Herman Miller; et al]

Hani

Detailed in C.J. Cherryh's "Chanur" series, Hani has a phonology fit for lions and inspired by the sounds the author's cats made. [C.J. Cherryh]

Harry Potter Magic Language

The Harry Potter magic language appears to consist of Dog Latin words. [J. K. Rowling]

Ilkorin

Possibly a language family within North Sindarin, a leading dialect of North Sindarin or a separate Eldarin language altogether. [J.R.R. Tolkien]

Kesh

[Ursula K. Le Guin]

Khuzdul

The secret language of the Dwarves. Oh, Balin, we hardly knew ye. [J.R.R. Tolkien]

Khuzdul, Neo-

David Salo writes, "What I sometimes call 'Neo-Khuzdul' or New Dwarvish [is] based on or inspired by the few Dwarvish words and names which Tolkien created and which have been published; but since Tolkien did not provide us anything regarding the grammar of Dwarvish (except a vague hint that it might be like Hebrew), and only gave us a very small vocabulary, something like 90% of this language is a new invention--by me. It sounds like Khuzdul, but I am sure that in structure and vocabulary it is much more different from what Tolkien would have created than any of the Elvish... 'Fear rips our heart!' Ugrûd tashniki kurdumâ!" [J.R.R. Tolkien, David Salo]

Kiffish

Popular science-fiction author C.J. Cherryh sketched out Kiffish for the "bad guys" in her "Chanur" series. With her permission, linguist Spence Hill added details to the language, based on her documentation of the anatomy and culture of the Kiff themselves. Besides being ergative, Kiffish is a synthetic language, rather than an agglutinative or order-bound language. [C.J. Cherryh; Spence Hill]

Klaatu's Language

The language of Klaatu was used in the 1951 classic movie, The Day The Earth Stood Still, one of the first movies to ever include a constructed language. The language consists of about 50 words derived from Terran languages, and the phrase "Klaatu barada necto" has become something of a catch-phrase among science-fiction fans, often alluded to in other works (e.g., the Klaatu Nebula in Galaxy Quest). [Edmund H. North]

Klingonaase

Klingonaase was the original Klingon language developed by John M. Ford in his Pocket Books Star Trek novel The Final Reflection. This novel, while considered "non-canon" by Paramount, was the first to show the Klingons as more than cardboard villains, favorably showing their honor-bound culture. By doing so, it paved the way for everything that followed -- Worf on ST:TNG and the Klingon language by Marc Okrand. Before this book, Klingons got no respect. [John M. Ford]

Kobaian

Christian Vander, the leader of the French band Magma, sings many of his lyrics in a language he invented called Kobaian. Along with it go a series of myths about people who escape a future apocalypse on Earth to make a new start on a planet called Kobaia. [Christian Vander]

Kzinti

It sounds like cats in a fight, with lots of hisses and growls. According to Larry Niven, the alphabet resembles dots and commas. [Roger Kuiper (and Man-Kzin Wars authors)]

Lapine

Richard Adams' Watership Down is one of the classic works of xenofiction, placed as it is among and between the warrens of rabbits in the English countryside. Lapine, the language he sketches for his rabbits, is arguably the best naming language ever created, and is a minimalist virtuoso performance, a haiku of a language compared to the sonnet of Sindarin. It's amazing how much can be accomplished with how little. Lapine went a long way towards establishing the verisimilitude of the rabbits' culture and in the process making Watership Down a bestseller. [Richard Adams]

Liaden

Liaden is spoken by the Liadens, a short, golden-skinned, highly competitive human culture in the Liaden universe. [Sharon Lee, Steve Miller]

Molvanian

Language created for a parody travel guide, Molvania: A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry. [Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Rob Sitch]

Old Dwarvish

Published in Dragon #66 (1982), "Old Dwarvish (66)". [Couldn't find an online synopsis of the article.] [Clyde Heaton]

Old Tongue

[Robert Jordan]

Orcish

Published in Dragon #75 (1983), "Even Orcish is Logical". [Couldn't find an online synopsis of the article, only an essay inspired by it.] [Clyde Heaton]

Pakuni

Pakuni was created for the children's TV series "Land of the Lost'. What's interesting about it -- besides the fond memories evoked for the show's fans -- is that it is possibly the first fictional language created for children's entertainment. It's creator, Victoria Fromkin, was a major figure in the history of the UCLA Linguistic Department: one of its first Ph.D.'s, a faculty member from 1965 to her death in 2000, and for many years the Dean/Vice Chancellor of the UCLA Graduate Division. Her research interests included the brain and language, lexical representation and access, processing models, speech errors as linguistic evidence, and linguistic explanations of aphasic language. [Victoria Fromkin, PhD]

Parseltongue

Parseltongue is not a language so much as a magical ability to speak with serpents. When Harry Potter speaks it, others hear him hissing, but he considers himself to be speaking English. Used in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2).

Pokemon

Pokemon names in English and Japanese. [Nintendo]

Quenya

Descended from Primitive Elvish, Quenya is the chief of Tolkien's Elvish languages, used mainly in The Lord of The Rings and The Silmarillion. The beauty of Quenya has inspired many to take up the hobby of model languages. Unfortunately, it was never a primary goal of Tolkien's to finish the design of Quenya, and his death left the vocabulary and grammar incomplete. This incompleteness has dampened the fires of enthusiasm for many who would have liked to have learned the language. At present there exists no single authoritative reference to the meta-history (the history of the creation of the fictional history) of Quenya. This gap will be filled eventually, when some unknown among us rises to the challenge of analyzing the editorial efforts of Tolkien's son, who has prepared a series of volumes relating the history of Tolkien's invention of Middle Earth. [Since I first wrote that in 1995, Helge Kåre Fauskanger has come close to achieving this.] [J.R.R. Tolkien]

Quya

"Quya is the language spoken by the Chosen. It cannot be denied that the impulse to develop such a language for The Stone Dance came, to some extent, from Tolkien. Like him, I felt the need to give things in the Three Lands names that were of that place. But the language would have been nothing but a collection of pleasing sounds if I had not met David Adger, then a linguistics student. It was he who showed me that, bilingual as I was, in the world of languages, I saw in black and white. He revealed to me the rainbow that is human languages. With his help, we shaped Quya, a court language which is possessed of all manner of strange elements originating in the mythological and historical antiquity of the Three Lands." [Ricardo Pinto & David Adger]

Saurian

Saurian is the language of the dinosaurs of Dinotopia, the world of a series of books, a miniseries and a short-lived TV series. Not much information is on the web, but use of the Saurian alphabet is popular. [James Gurney]

Stitch Words

The speech used by Stitch in the Lilo & Stitch movie and TV series. [Disney]

Talumena

[F.A.Fabian, Sr.]

Tamarian

This mythometaphorical language was inspired by the "Darmok" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Tenctonese

It's a rather unsophisticated alien language, including English words spelled backwards, in jokes and featuring English grammar. Van Ling developed it for the 1988 movie, then Kenneth Johnson and his daughter Juliet expanded it and redid it for the TV series. Scott Mislan took over the language duties for the last 19 episodes of the short lived series. [Johnson, Kenneth; Johnson, Juliet; Ling, Van; Mislan, Scott]

Tlön languages

The Tlön languages are imaginary languages even within the fictional context of Borge's short story, where the languages have been invented for an invented planet. [Jorge Luis Borges]

Valarin

The tongue of the Valar, the angelic spirits who inspire the stories of The Silmarillion. [J.R.R. Tolkien]

Up to Conlang Index

47 languages listed.
Updated on January 10, 2005 at 3:36 PM (GMT-5).