1. Introduction to Imaginary Languages (and How to Create Your Own!)

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

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

4. Other Terms for Imaginary Languages
Planned language
Artificial language
Fictional language
Constructed language
“Conlang” for short

5. Conlangs fall into three 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.
Auxlangs or International auxiliary languages like Esperanto, Volapük, Ido, Ekspreso, etc., etc., etc. These are artificial languages that are specifically designed by their creators to serve as a means of communication, often seen as a “neutral” alternative to natural languages. Well over 100 different such languages have been proposed since the 1800s. Esperanto is probably the best known of these types of conlangs. With approximately 2 million speakers worldwide (according to the Ethnologue database), Esperanto is in the same category as Upper Saxon in Germany, Betawi in Indonesia, and Venetian in Italy. One of the languages available to see the Google search page in is Esperanto.
Loglangs or logical languages are conlangs specifically designed to eliminate ambiguous statements and designed more as experiments in logic and philosophy than serious attempts at communication. Examples of these would be Loglan, Lojban, and Ithkuil. Computer languages can also be thought of as loglangs. (For a list of loglangs see
The subset of artistic languages is our focus for today. These are languages created for artistic or aesthetic reasons, whether to stand on their own merits or to be used in writing fiction, poetry, songs, or other works. Examples include J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish languages, Star Trek's Klingon, Lapine (from Watership Down), Drac (from Enemy Mine), etc. Imaginary languages have been used in literature for literally centuries, and movies since at least the 1950s. Fans of these books and, more recently, films go to great lengths to learn Quenya, Sindarin, Klingon, Láadan, and many more. Young adults (and adults) create languages to use in role-playing games or fiction, or just to engage in a linguistic hobby.
Artistic languages or artlangs
Quenya, Sindarin, Klingon, Lapine, Drac, D’ni, Ayeri, Umod, Askaic, Khangaþyagon, etc.

6. 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
Who would like to guess how old is the oldest conlang used for writing songs?
Answer: over 850 years old. (c. 1150) – “Lingua Ignota” – St. Hildegarde of Bingen, 12th century. Her “unknown language” consisted of over 1000 words (nouns and adjectives). Used with Latin for its grammar. Used to write religious songs and medical treatises. Example of words: aigonz - God, aiganz - angel, pariz - father, mariz – mother
1638 – The Man in the Moone: or a Discourse of a Voyage thither – Bishop Francis Godwin (lunar language is musical)
1798 – Human Vicissitudes or Travels into Unexplored Regions – (Anonymous – English): “the people of fashion discriminated their language from that of the vulgar...by adding a vowel to end of each word...When the word of command is given to the soldiers by a commissioned officer, it is hempa reste hakatene solema (literally, put spears to your shoulders). When by a serjeant, he says, hemp rest hakaten solem...”
1871 – The Coming Race – Edward Bulwer-Lytton (the Vril-ya, esp. 12th chapter)

7. Conlanging Exercise I…
Creating a
“naming language”

8. Elves
~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

9. BARBARIANS
~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

10. Gnomes
~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

11. Dragons
~ Welcome to LIBRARIA ~

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Conlanging Exercise II…
Building Words
- or -
“Now, It Starts To Get Tricky”

15. J.R.R. Tolkien
1892 ~ 1973

16. Elen síla lumenn’ omentielvo.
Elvish Phrases
Elen 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”

17. Conlanging Exercise III…
Verbs
and
Word Order

18. KLINGON
Marc Okrand is the most well known modern star of the conlanging world.
Whereas Tolkien’s languages existed in a purely literary form for years before Peter Jackson brought them to the screen, Marc Okrand’s work was made to specifically appear in the movies.
Klingon is one of the languages available on the Google interface.
Marc Okrand has been with the National Captioning Institute, Inc., for 25 years – currently Director of Live Captioning. Marc Okrand is the inventor of the Klingon language. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to invent the language and coach the actors on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. His first work was dubbing in Vulcan language dialogue for The Wrath of Khan, since the actors had already been filmed talking in English.
Okrand also created the Atlantean language in the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
The Klingon Hamlet.
“To be or not to be – that is the question.”
taH pagh taHbe’. DaH mu’tlheghvam vIqeInIS.
Also, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Epic Of Gilgamesh.
Teach some Klingon.
MENTION: Frasier makes a deal with the Star Trek fan Noel: Frasier will get Scott Bakula's autograph at a Star Trek convention (Noel cannot attend himself because William Shatner has a restraining order against him) and Noel will translate a speech for Frasier's son's Bar Mitzvah into Hebrew. Frasier fails to live up to his side of the agreement, so Noel gets even by translating the speech into Klingon (Frasier can't tell the difference). Frasier delivers the speech in Klingon (the Klingon spoken is real) to a stunned audience. A friend of Frasier's son recognizes that the language is Klingon, and later translates the speech into English. To make it up to Noel, Frasier gives him the wig Joan Collins wore in the Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever".

19. KLINGON PHRASES nuqneH Qapla’ taH pagh taHbe’… Hab SoSlI’ Quch!
“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!”

20. Conlanging Exercise IV & V…
Nouns
&
Bringing It All Together

21. 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