By: Tanishka D
If you like me are fans of the science fiction and fantasy genres, you may have encountered stories that are set in distant worlds that are very different from ours. This may be conveyed through the usage of portraying the unfamiliar party with uncanny features or making them speak in a made up language. It can also be noticed that the made up languages may be indecipherable to the common audience, but may subliminally reveal the charaters role in the story and intentions through the usage of linguistic features that the general populace associates with communites of people in real life. This can sometimes create negative associations in the audiences minds about the character, regardless of the intention of the linguists who coined the language for the media.
This article will explore how conlangs are made for the medium of entertainment that is motion pictures as well as how they can sometimes end up doing more harm than good.
The word conlang is derived from a portmanteau ( basically two or more words smushed to make one word to combine the meanings of the words) that combines the words constructed and language. It refers to any language that is constructed to serve a particular purpose rather than one which has evolved as a result of human communication. Linguists create conlangs for films to immerse audience in the atmosphere of the scene and this in turn adds to the verisimeltude or believeability of the scene. Some famous conlangs are the Na'vi language form avatar and klingon from star trek.
One thing many, including myslef do not like about the way languages are constructed for film is the fact that lingusitcs often resort to sterotypes when they are construting a language for a particular group of species. One example for this can be the fact that sounds made by consonants in the language of the orcs in the lord of the rings may nit be present in most standard varieties of english but are present in languages such as arabic. Due To this trait of the orc language, most of the general populace will project thier stereotypes of arab people onto the orcs. Keep in mind that big hollywood production, whilst popular worldwide, are made with western audiences in mind.
Another reason why conlangs may not be effective in film is that there is a certain fakeness to a language that is, well, fake. Audiences often feel something is off when watching characters speak in conlangs as they do not contain the nuances that organically occour in languages such as english. There is very little or sometimes no varience in the dialect that is spoken and no slight differences in pronounciation which constitiue towards the character's idolect ( individual dialect)
Constructed or not, language allows audiences to connect better with visual media such as film. construted languages are effective to show otherness and reinforce the differences between large groups such as the Anacreons and thespins in foundation. However, it can be said that constructed languages lack the nuances found in most languages and thus kill the immersion of the audience when nit done right.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed and learnt something new. If you enjoyed this article, do leave a suggestion in the suggestion box to suggest more interesting peices of media I can cover on this website. Au revoir!