Introduction toImaginary Languages

(and How to Create Your Own!)

Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo, meldonyar. Essenya na Ambartur Taurëpennevallo. Sillume quetuvalwe lambion ar parmaron.Nauvalye istime íre telyuvalwe.

ghojlu’meH QaQ jajvam, juppu’wI’! qo'che'wI' jonwI' puqloD 'oH pongwIj'e'. repvam paqmey Holmey je DIbuS. tIyaj!

Other Termsfor Imaginary Languages

• Planned language

• Artificial language

• Fictional language

• Constructed language– “Conlang” for short

Conlangs fall intothree general categories

• Auxiliary languages or auxlangs– Esperanto, Glosa, Volapük, Interlingua, Folkspraak,

Unish, Ido, Novial, Solresol, etc.

•Logical languages or loglangs–Loglan, Lojban, Ithkuil, Ceqli, Gua/spi, AllNoun, Kel, Liva, Lojsk, etc.

•Artistic languages or artlangs–Quenya, Sindarin, Klingon, Lapine, Drac, D’ni, Ayeri, Umod, Askaic, Khangaþyagon, etc.

Early Artlangs• c. 1150 “Lingua Ignota” – St. Hildegarde of Bingen

• 1516 Utopia – Sir Thomas More

• 1532 Gargantua and Pantagruel – Rabelais

• 1638 The Man in the Moon: or a Discourse of a Voyage Thither – Bishop Francis Godwin

• 1676 La Terre Australe Connue – Gabriel de Foigny

• 1726 Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

• 1798 Human Vicissitudes or Travels Into Unexplored Regions - Anonymous (English)

• 1871 The Coming Race – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

• 1942 Islandia – Austin Tappan Wright

Conlanging Exercise I…

Creating a“naming language”

Elves

~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

BARBARIANS

~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

Gnomes

~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

Dragons

~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

How popular is conlanging?

• Google search results (5/3/2006)

– “constructed languages” – 135,000

– artlang = 278,000

– Sindarin = 503,000

– Quenya = 523,000

– conlang = 1,200,000

– Klingon + language = 2,550,000

How popular is conlanging?

• CONLANG listserv – founded 1998, currently 1,029 members• Elfling listserv – founded 1998, currently 1,864 members• PC Magazine (April 6 (Spring) 2005):

– Langmaker.com named one of the “Top 100 Web Sites You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t Live Without”

– Langmaker.com has almost 1,500 conlangs indexed

• First International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Invented Languges held August 4-8, 2005, at University of Stockholm

• First Language Creation Conference held April 23, 2006 at Berkeley, CA.

Conlanging Exercise II…

Building Words- or -

“Now, It Starts To Get Tricky”

J.R.R. Tolkien

1892 ~ 1973

Elvish PhrasesElen síla lumenn’ omentielvo.

“A star shines on the hour of our meeting.”

Mae govannen!“Well met!”

Lasto![Lasto beth lammen!]

“Listen!”[“Listen to the words

of my tongue!”]

Noro lim!“Giddyap!”

Namárië“Farewell”

Conlanging Exercise III…

Verbsand

Word Order

KLINGON

KLINGON PHRASESnuqneH

“Hello” (Literally: “What do you want?”)

Qapla’“Success”

taH pagh taHbe’…“To be or not to be…”

(…DaH mu’tlheghvam vIqeInIS…)

Hab SoSlI’ Quch!“Your mother has a smooth forehead!”

Conlanging Exercise IV & V…

Nouns&

Bringing It All Together

Conlanger’s Bookshelf & Resources• Conlanger Resources

– A Glossary of Constructed Language Terms– Swadesh List– English sounds in X-SAMPA

• Conlanger’s Bookshelf– Fiction– Nonfiction– Games and Gaming Resources– Movies– Television

• Web Links– www.geocities.com/donaldboozer

•http://at.mansbjorkman.net/pl_namarie.jpg