Blog Language & Culture A Complete Guide To Creating A New Language
A Complete Guide to
Creating a New Language
L a s t Up d a t e d M a rc h 2 , 2 0 2 1
On top of the thousands of natural languages that have
emerged over the history of humanity, people have
created hundreds of artificial languages for communal
and artistic purposes. And you can too!
Language facilitates communication, helping us transmit vital
information around the world. Constructed language (Conlang)
communities exist all over the world, and new ones keep popping
up all over the world.
Learn more about our language solutions.
Let’s take a look at the history and development of what goes into
creating a new language, and how you can attempt to do it on your
own!
Creating a New Language: Examples in History and
Popular Culture
Many believe St. Hildegard of Bingen was the first to go about
creating a brand-new language with ‘Lingua Ignota’—developed in
the 12th century mainly for mystical purposes.
The number of created languages has increased exponentially in
recent years. Books, TV series, and movies often create languages
to add realism to their stories.
Let’s begin by looking at other artificial or constructed languages in
popular culture:
Esperanto
Esperanto is the most widely embraced artificial language in the
world, with approximately 2 million speakers worldwide. Polish-
Jewish ophthalmologist Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof created Esperanto
in 1887.
Esperanto was intended to be a universal second language. The
goal was that all people communicated freely, despite their
different backgrounds. It remains alive today, and “to speak
Esperanto is to become an automatic citizen in the most welcoming
non-nation on Earth.”
Fun fact: The shop signs in the Jewish ghetto are written in
Esperanto in the Charlie Chaplin movie “The Great Dictator.”
Grammelot
Dario Fo, an Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer, theater
director, songwriter, painter, and political campaigner is known to
the world primarily for his Nobel prize-winning play “Mistero Buffo.”
The play, staged in 1969, features a created language known as
Grammelot.
This language dates to the 15th century and is made up of dialects
from the Po Valley in Italy. Much like Esperanto, it was initially
developed to serve as a common language among many people.
Jesters travelling around Medieval Europe could not speak all the
languages of the countries they visited, so they created a language
made of onomatopoeic sounds, gestures and words that simulated
the stereotypical sounds of those foreign languages.
As a result, everybody would understand and enjoy their
performances.
Fun fact: The Canadian circus and entertainment troupe Cirque du
Soleil uses a form of Grammelot in its routines.
Klingon (tlhIngan Hol)
Dr. Marc Okrand developed the Klingon language for the TV series
Star Trek and its subsequent movies.
As per the Klingon Language Institute website, the language has
been developed from gibberish to a proper tongue with its own
writing system, grammar, vocabulary, figures of speech, and
regional dialects.
A Klingon version of A Christmas Carol (tlhIngan ram nI’ bom)
premiered in 2007 in Minnesota.
Fun fact: Dr. d’Armond Speers raised his son Alec to speak Klingon
as a first language. After his fifth birthday, though, Alec stopped
responding to his father in Klingon.
Toki Pona
Sonja Elen Kisa, a Toronto-based translator and linguist, invented
Toki Pona in 2001 . This is possibly the world’s smallest language,
with little more than 100 words and 14 letters.
Many words are created as compounds. Purple, for example,
translates as “laso (blue) loje (red)”.
Toki Pona mainly borrows from European languages such as
English, Finnish, and Dutch, but also from Chinese, Acadian French,
and Tok Pisin.
Fun fact: The creation of compound words in Toki Pona is quite
subjective and depends on individual perception. For example, the
term “car” translates as:
“tomo tawa”
(indoor space) + (moving)
if you mean it like a space used for movements
or
“kiwen utala”
(hard object, metal) + (struggle against)
if you’re struck by a car (in this case, it is a hard object that’s hitting
you).
Dothraki
David J Peterson created this language for the TV series Game of
Thrones—the adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s series of novels
that began with A Song of Ice and Fire.
Peterson also came up with the languages used in Thor and its
sequel The Dark World. His name is one of the most recognizable in
the constructed languages (or Conlang) community.
The language is based on the words and phrases from Martin’s
books and on borrowed words from Turkish, Russian, Estonian,
Inuktitut, and Swahili.
It took four years for Peterson to develop Dothraki. The language
features its own alphabet, grammar, and specific word order rooted
in an anthropological approach. He studied their history, the
geography of places they live, their culture, values, and how their
whole community works.
The vocabulary of this language is like a Genghis-Khan-era
Mongolian, as the nomadic lifestyles of both communities are
comparable. That’s also why you can’t find words for hello,
democracy, or throne in Dothraki—those concepts simply don’t exist
in their world.
It was Peterson who decided there would be no word in Dothraki for
“please” or “thank you,” but there would be seven different words to
translate “striking someone with a sword.”
To learn more about Dothraki and other Game of Thrones
languages, read our blog about .
Fun fact: In 2014, 368 newborn girls in the United States were
named “Khaleesi”, the Dothraki word for “wife of a khal” or ruler.
The languages of Middle Earth
As we have seen, J.R.R. Tolkien wasn’t the first author create a new
language, but he did take things to a whole new level.
As a philologist himself, he studied Old and Middle English as well
as Old Norse. He had been working on Sindarin and Quenya—
languages used in fictional Middle Earth—for almost 40 years
before The Lord of the Rings was published in 1945.
Tolkien wanted his languages to read and sound as if they were
living tongues. He first started to work on a protolanguage called
Eldarin, and then modified the language as if it had been
influenced by the society, culture, and other tongues (as it happens
with any real language).
Quenya and Sindarin are the outcome of this process.
Due to Tolkien’s efforts, the whole history of Middle Earth is
incredibly realistic. Even if the average reader can’t grasp
phonological phenomena, it brings magical realism to the whole
story. This became especially evident in the incredibly popular films
that came out of his writing, when we could witness the languages
come alive.
Fun fact: Apart from his own created languages, Tolkien was fluent
in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Latin,
Lombardic, Middle and Old English, Old Norse, Norwegian, Russian,
Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh and Medieval Welsh.
How to Create Your Own Language
Based on what we have discussed above, here are our steps to
creating a new language.
1. Name Your Language
The most important property of a language is its name, which
should primarily fit the nature of people or creatures speaking it.
2. Build Grammar Rules
Grammatical structures should be written down and implemented.
For example, in the Dothraki language, the word ‘horde’ is
‘Khalasar’ and ‘hordes’ is ‘Khalasari’, making it easier to remember
the plural, as the only difference is an added ‘i’ in the end.
Most importantly, keep it consistent.
3. Consider Basing Your Artificial Language on an Existing
Language
Na’avi is the language used in the movie Avatar. The word ‘Rrta’
means earth, ‘toktor’ means doctor. These words have been derived
from the English words ‘earth’ and ‘doctor’, respectively.
Basing your new language on an already existing one makes the
process easier and makes words more memorable.
Just be careful to avoid the use of “false friends.”
4. Combine Words to Make New Ones
For instance, if you invented the word ‘chocolate’ as chico, ‘drink’ as
dkirk, and the word water as wterir, why not make the word ‘milk’ as
dkerir, or cherir or even wtico – the options are endless!
5. Get Inspired by Existing Alphabets
Consider adding some non-Latin characters to your language. You
can even create the whole language based on non-Latin alphabets
such as Arabic, Greek, Chinese, or Armenian.
6. Record Everything
Make sure to keep detailed records of all the words and
grammatical rules in your language. This isn’t an easy task, but you
don’t want to lose your work or find yourself getting off track!
7. Practice Your Language
Now that you’ve created your own language, start using it yourself
before spreading it to others! Once you feel confident enough,
experiment and expand:
$ Teach your friends and family this new language. As soon as
your friends and family understand your new language,
communicate with them in it and become fluent yourself.
$ Write a poem/story/novel in your own new language.
$ Translating a novel into your new language could be a lot of fun.
It may even surprise you to know that Shakespeare’s Hamlet has
been translated into Klingon.
Creating a New Language: Communication is Key
Even newly created languages developed for the purpose of art can
facilitate communication, helping us express new ideas and share
vital information around the world.
An awareness of the customs, traditions, and culture of a given
region – can make a big contribution to common understanding.
No matter how creative your language needs are, Summa Linguae
Technologies can help.
To learn more about what experienced translators can do for your
business, check out our translation services.
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