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Angela Compton
Marianna Ahokas
ENGL 422
12 December 2016
Invented Languages and Their Purpose in Fiction
Humans have made languages since before King John signed the Magna Carta in
1215, but our reason for making complex languages has changed since then. Today, in the
constructed language community, languages are created more for fantasy and science
fiction works instead of for diplomacy, and theres a very specific reason for that: to create
another entity from the narrator and their own community.
Languages werent always created for fiction. Long before we started to have
writers that wrote for profit, much less linguists who made languages for fiction as a living,
people created languages for diplomacy and to, cure Babel. The story of Babel, written in
Genesis, tells of a kingdom who wanted to reach the heavens and their God so badly that
they constructed then what was the highest tower in history; it ended with their project
toppled, and everyone speaking different languages. A lot of people thought that there must
be a way to revert to a language, or discover a language that all other languages on the
planet came from, to cure Babel; there must be something they could all learn and converse
in, a perfect language.
This idea of a perfect language existing somewhere went on for a long time. For
centuries people tried to create languages that would unite the world under one common
language, a language that would reverse Babel and make everyone understand everyone

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else. Many people tried their hand at the perfect language, stating that their work followed
logic and had none of the irregularities that English and other languages had. John Wilkins
Philosophical Language is just an example where everything was categorized under where
it fit in his view of the universe, and he took 600 pages to detail his system. As more and
more people tried to create languages that would cross the gap between the world, the task
began to be seen as a fools errand.
Then Ludwik Zamenhof created Esperanto out of a desperation to have the people
within Biaystok, his home town under the Russian Empire, understand each other. They
had upwards of 3 languages that could be heard from anywhere within the city limits, and
so his dream to have a language that brought the community together came forth as
Esperanto. Of course, as soon as it came out there were others who wanted to improve
upon it, and make it better, and others creating their own languages that could take over
certain parts of the world that now conversed through trade or academia. Up to that point,
it wasnt uncommon for certain topics to be covered in different languages; business was in
French, science was in German, but another up and coming language was English, which
was slowly pushing everything back. Arika Okrent, in her book In the Land of Invented
Languages, even points out that the French and Germans werent against languages, but in
fact, The most active international language supporters were in France and Germany countries whose languages had the most to lose from the encroachment of
English(Okrent 136). People didnt want English as the new trade language, they wanted
their own language to be regarded as the truly international language, to be the common
language of the world.

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None of the languages created for the purposes of uniting or becoming the universal
language ever caught on, except for Esperanto, which could still be debated. But as people
began to realize that most created languages will never live, some people began to use
them in different ways. The first invented language to be presented in a widely popular
fiction was J.R.R. Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin, otherwise known as the elven languages
showcased in Middle Earth. Tolkien began working on these languages as he studied at
Oxford, and funny enough, The Lord of the Rings was created as a story platform to
showcase the languages that Tolkien had made and worked on for around 40 years (Colin,
Cain, Tolkien, Solopova). The old linguist had wanted to give background to his language,
and so created a mythos and a people that spoke the languages he created (Colin, Cain,
Tolkien, Solopova). And these languages werent just references and small phrases, they
were complete languages that manuscripts could be written in, and dialogues spoken in.
From there, more and more people began to create languages that would show up in their
novels, that would make sense and add that extra layer. One of the more popular crazes
going on right now is Game of Thrones, which has several languages in it other than
English. But why do people create languages for science fiction and fantasy novels?
Living languages today act as a barrier between people; yes, some people can
understand more than one, but the majority of the worlds population have only one
language under their belt. Having different languages within media helps expose others to
different cultures, especially when they almost always come with translations, but what
about in books? In The Wheel of Time the Old Tongue is a language that most people dont
know, and the reader doesnt know it either unless the narrator knows bits and parts. The

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language creates an air around those that can understand it, because theyve either had the
time and money to study it, or have come directly from the time when it was spoken. In
Game of Thrones, Dothraki and Valyrian were made by linguist David J. Peterson, explicitly
for the show, since George RR Martin had introduced the languages within his text as only
small words and phrases. The multiple languages within Westeros are showcased through
Daeneryss journey through the mainland, where she encounters a handful of different
cultures and languages. In the show theyre normalized, and she talks in the same language
as the Starks as her native tongue, showing over everything that the people shes
communicating with are different than her and the country she originally came from. In the
book, we mostly get descriptions of her hearing other people speaking in a different
language that she cant understand, which sets her even more apart from the people shes
surrounded by.
On almost the opposite spectrum of languages that make groups of people stand out
in fiction, there are languages in certain settings and stories made to bring people together.
But even these can not be as clean as some people might like. Take for example Common
from Dungeons & Dragons. Its the language that humans and everyone else speak, the
Tieflings (demon like people) and Half-Orcs included; in fact most races can speak Common
along with their native language. It sounds great that everyone can speak the same
language, that there is a way for everyone to understand each other, but what does this
allude to? That every person knows Common, but not every person knows Abyssal (the
native language of the tieflings)? Its as simple as everything else, and it likens itself to our
own world history thats chock full of imperialism and colonialism. Depending on different

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peoples campaign experience, the languages could be used or modified, but in the end
theyre used to be confusing to the players. Almost everyone speak Common, and anything
different could mean danger and potentially provides a blockade, preventing the players
from progressing further into the story.
Invented languages in media, from my experience reading and writing such media,
are used as a tool to cast a group of people as different, as outsiders. But do we create this
separation on purpose, or do we implement fantastical languages subconsciously,
mirroring what we know from history into the created lands in fantasy novels? And is it
helping spread social awareness of celebrating differences rather than alienating anyone
that so much as looks a shade darker from us? Should we celebrate diversity in fantasy and
science fiction, and should that be based on race and species (elf, dwarf, krogan, turian,
etc.) or ethnicity (american, mexican, canadian, etc.)?
In the end, right now in the realms of sci-fi and fantasy writing, invented languages
are used as a barrier to the narrator, something they must overcome. Full languages other
than the narrators mother tongue are a problem, and though it could add another layer to
a constructed society within the world, implementing one that can read as a full language
without interacting with it through the voice of a character just distances the community
who speaks it.

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References

Conley, Tim; Cain, Stephen (2006). Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages.
Greenwood Publishing Group.
Jordan, Robert, and Brandon Sanderson. The Wheel of Time. New York: Tor, 1990-2013.
Print..
Martin, Denise. "Learn to Speak Dothraki and Valyrian From the Man Who Invented Them
for Game of Thrones." Vulture. Vulture, 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Okrent, Arika. In the Land of Invented Languages: A Celebration of Linguistic Creativity,
Madness, and Genius. New York: Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks, 2010. Print.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings "Foreword to the Second Edition."
http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/tolkien__the_lord_of_the_rings_1__en.htm#00
Solopova, Elizabeth. Languages, Myths and History: An Introduction to the Linguistic and
Literary Background of J.R.R. Tolkien's Fiction. Place of Publication Not Identified:
North Landing, 2009. Print.