Fictional languages

Fictional languages ​​can be spoken by fictional beings and peoples inhabiting fictional countries in literary and cinema fiction . Sometimes fictional languages ​​are designed for computer games , such as the Simlish in The Sims , or for toys like Furbish , the native language of the Furby robotic toy ^[3] .

Fictional languages ​​also include artificial “personal languages” created by amateur enthusiasts that do not pretend to be a universal auxiliary language and are not the embodiment of any profound linguistic-philosophical idea, but simply are the result of creative self-expression of authors (there are whole communities of language designers on the Internet or konglangerov ) ^[4] .

Fictional languages ​​often try to express an unusual picture of the world and a way of thinking. Fictional languages ​​are characterized by a shift in the center of gravity from a commutative function to a poetic one ^[5] .

Some fictional languages ​​differ from others in the degree of sophistication. Often for fiction purposes it’s enough to come up with a few words (and probably the rules for the formation of the plural ). J. Henning, the ideologist of the online conglomeration movement, classifies languages ​​such as jargon . In particular, they are referred to in science fiction as “ proper name languages,” created to give names to characters or geographical objects ^[6] .

One of the most developed fictional languages ​​are the languages invented by Tolkien for the Legendarium of Middle-earth . Such elaboration makes some of the fictional languages ​​full-fledged artificial languages ^[7] .

Tolkien's linguistic experiments gave rise to a modern passion for linguistics. Although the last serious attempt to offer the world a universal artificial language of international communication was the Lojban created at the end of the 80s of the 20th century, interest in constructing languages ​​in the 90s and zero languages ​​was not only not lost, but also increased noticeably ^[8] .

Not all fictional languages ​​are equally popular. If some function or are mentioned only within the framework of those works of art where they are described, then others go beyond this framework, gaining their own life.

Fictional Tolkien Languages

John Ronald Ruel Tolkien created and described in his works several languages ​​(including the elven languages ​​of Quenya and Sindarin ), which became one of the most popular and significant. Tolkien's work is characterized by careful study of linguistic details, which made it possible to compile dictionaries and textbooks at least in the language of Quenya . He developed for his languages ​​not only grammar, phonetics and writing, but also the history of their development ^{[7] [9]} .

Klingon language

Linguist Mark Ocrand for the television series " Star Trek " developed the Klingon language and two types of writing for him. Klingon is characterized by complex phonetics. This language became one of the most famous and used artlangs after Tolkien invented: there is a large community of fans around the Klingon language, books are translated into it, the language is supported in the Bing automatic translation system ^{[3] [10]} .

Na'vi

Another famous artlang is the Na'vi language created by linguist Paul Frommer for James Cameron 's Avatar movie. Grammar na'vi has a number of features, in particular, a three-part sentence construction and a triple number ^[9] .

Games of Thrones Languages

A series of fictional languages ​​appears in George Martin’s novel, A Song of Ice and Fire . For the adaptation of the epic series Game of Thrones , David Peterson developed several languages, including the pre-Thracian language and the Valyrian language family. Languages ​​have a well-developed grammar and phonetics ^[10] .

D'ni

In the world of the Myst series of computer games, there is the civilization D'ni, which used its own language. Around the creator of the D'ni language, Richard Watson, a community of fans of the language has developed that are engaged in its study and at the same time further development ^[11] .

Newspeak

George Orwell came up with Newspeak for his 1984 novel. In the story, the language was created with the aim of controlling the political life of society. The grammar of the newspeak is very simple: any word can be used as a noun , verb , adjective and adverb . Newspeak vocabulary is designed so that, in principle, it excludes the possibility of expressing ideas undesirable for the ruling regime in this language ^[9] .

Horukor and Ptidepe

For his 1965 play, The Memorandum, Vaclav Havel, with the help of his brother Ivan , a computer science specialist, came up with two fictional languages: pitidepe and horocor. The purpose of creating a pitdepe, according to the plot of the play, is to avoid misunderstandings, therefore, all absolutely words in this language are very different from each other. In the chorus, on the contrary, the more similar the concepts express the words, the more the words themselves are similar to each other ^[9] .

Language as a world-forming element

Fictional languages ​​can play an important role in science fiction works, where much attention is paid to the description of a fictional universe . Their goal, at a minimum, is to create an appropriate setting, they deepen the reader or viewer understanding of the features of this world, giving them additional credibility ^[7] . Language is a powerful element in the construction of fictional worlds , allowing you to give your own names for their natural and social realities, to create elements of their spiritual culture ^[12] .

The concepts of fictional languages ​​that are absent in our usual language, or differences in the role of these concepts in the general conceptual structure of such a language emphasize the differences between the fictional world and everyday reality. A similar difference lies, for example, in the title of the novel by Ursula Le Guin, “There is One Word for the Forest and the World .” Thus, a language in a fantastic work can have the role of a world-forming element ^[7] .

Language as a Characteristic Character

The language spoken by a character can in one way or another characterize this particular character (especially if he is the only native speaker of this language in the work). The difference and similarity between the languages ​​of the characters can also be the source of certain plot conflicts ^[7] .

Language as a plot-forming element

Some unusual features of such languages ​​can be a plot-forming element for the works where they are introduced. It can sometimes be said that a fictional language is a kind of character in such books ^[7] .

The most famous example of this kind is the novel (and the same language) by Samuel Diley " Babylon 17 ". Another example is the language of the heptapods from Ted Chan ’s story “ The Story of Your Life ”. In both examples, the language fundamentally changes the mindset of its native speaker: in the Dylan’s novel, this language was developed as a weapon of sabotage, while in Chan the language is associated with a fundamentally different perception by the newcomers of the time. Orwell’s newspeak possesses a similar property, but unlike the above, it is not plot-forming for the novel " 1984 ", its removal would greatly impoverish the book, but would not deprive it of meaning ^[7] .

This role of fictional languages ​​in science fiction is closely related to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis , which suggests that thinking is very much connected with the language in which a person formulates his thoughts ^[13] . On the other hand, Heinlein defeated this hypothesis, who described in the story “The Abyss ” the language of speedtok , accelerating thinking ^[14] .

Another interesting example of “linguistic” science fiction is Sheckley 's satirical short story, “ Explain a Little? ”, Where he described the collisions of a linguist with a language that could not be studied ^[7] .

An important linguistic characteristic of any artificial language is its posteriority or a priori , that is, the answer to the question whether an artificial language corresponds to one of the natural ones. In fact, the a priori and a posteriori of the language is relative, and one or another artificial (including fictional) language lies on one point or another on a smooth scale, on the one hand there will be something like Basic English , and on the other hand, philosophical languages ​​like Ro ^[15] .

Fictional languages, clearly derived from existing natural ones, include languages ​​of alternative history , during the creation of which the authors try to solve the question of what our usual languages ​​would look if history would take a different path, and languages ​​that predict the future stages of development of natural languages ^{[16 ]} . The development of posterior languages ​​of alternative history is the hobby of Dr. David Peterson ^{[11] [17]} , who is also known as a developer of the pre-Thracian language .

In those cases when a fictional language is a well-developed artificial language , the author raises the question of how to introduce the reader to it without violating the laws of artistry. An interesting trick was used by Barry Longyear in his famous story “ My Enemy ”: here the reader learns the Drake language together with the main earthling hero Willis David during the conversation with the alien Jerry ^[7] .

• Non-Natural Programming Languages

Encyclopedias of Fictional Languages

• Tim Conley, Stephen Cain. Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages . - Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006 .-- 236 p. - ISBN 9780313021930 .
• Stephen D. Rogers. The Dictionary of Made-Up Languages: From Elvish to Klingon, the Anwa, Reella, Ealray, Yeht (Real) Origins of Invented Lexicons. - Adams Media, 2011 .-- ISBN 9781440530395 .

Monographs and textbooks

• d.f n Marina Yuryevna Sidorova, Ph.D. n Oksana Nikolaevna Shuvalova. Internet Linguistics: Fictional Languages . - M .: 1989.ru, 2006 .-- 184 p. - ISBN 5-98789-005-5 .
• David J. Peterson. The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building . - Penguin Publishing Group, 2015 .-- 292 p. - ISBN 9780143126461 .

Articles

• d.f n Marina Yuryevna Sidorova, Ph.D. n Oksana Nikolaevna Shuvalova. Internet Linguistics: Fictional Languages . - M .: 1989.ru, 2006 .-- 184 p. - ISBN 5-98789-005-5 .
• K.F. n Oksana Nikolaevna Shuvalova. Fictional languages ​​as a subject of “naive” and scientific linguistics (neopr.) . Portal "Word" (November 2, 2013). Date of treatment May 29, 2015.
• Skvortsov V.V. Genre diversity of linguistic fiction // Modern studies of social problems (electronic scientific journal). - 2013. - No. 9 (29) . - DOI : 10.12731 / 2218-7405-2013-9-91 .
• Alexander Petrov. Why do people come up with languages? // " Popular mechanics ." - 2012. - No. 4 .
• Artyom Luchko. 10 fictional languages: From Harry Potter through Game of Thrones to Sims // Look at Me . - January 20, 2014.
• Alexander Piperski . Artlangs: artificial languages ​​in literature and in films (neopr.) . PostScience (August 10, 2015). Date accessed August 24, 2015.

Lectures and broadcasts

• Ph.D. Dmitry Kralechein and Ph.D. Vasily Kuznetsov. Language of science fiction and science fiction languages , seminar of the Moscow Philosophical College from the series Philosophy of Fiction, February 28, 2015
• Stanislav Anisimov et al. Fictional languages ​​in the cinema. Part 1 , Echo of Moscow , April 26, 2012, 01:03
• O. N. Shuvalova " Fictional languages ​​on the Internet ." Filfak Moscow State University , special course

• List of fictional languages on poliglos.info