Invented Languages Portal

The use of fictional languages in science fiction from the good to the bad. This includes fully constructed languages, references to constructed and foreign languages, as well as misuse or misunderstandings of language change. How these subtle points contribute to or detract from world building. This will expand on the work of Ria Cheyne through examples and delving deeper linguistically.

Why do people increasingly find Shakespeare challenging to read? Why do we translate Beowulf? How did Latin become Spanish, Italian, French, and other languages? Languages change over time. They are affected by internal and external factors. Many of these changes are recorded, and some fairly well understood. In this module we will explore the variety of changes that occur to languages over time, including sounds, word structure and order, and semantics, as well as language spread and language death. This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules.

Languages come in contact with each other all the time and have done so throughout history. Many of the patterns that emerge from language contact have been studied and can provide some explanation for what happens. Why do English and Spanish drive out some languages? What happens when one language, through invasion or culture, moves into the area of another language? How do languages compete with one another and how do they “cooperate”? We will explore the varieties of language contact in this course, through military expansion, cultural dominance, and side by side contact, as well as other forms of interaction between languages, and look at the results. This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules.

Morphology is the study of how words are formed and the meaning in their constituent parts. In this module we will explore English morphology first, to build up a vocabulary of useful terms and ideas, and then move on to other languages, both familiar and rare. We will examine different strategies that languages use to communicate information and how that information is encoded into words. We will use a number of problem sets or puzzles to “take apart” other languages, to learn more about their structure, and to take away some interesting new facts about language. We will look at Turkish, Swahili, and others to see the variety of human languages. This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules.

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds (and, in the case of sign languages, how gestures reflect their own meaning). We will explore how sounds are made and heard. Our goal will be to understand the IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet, how to listen to and write out English, as well as to explore the variety of sounds in the words languages. We will practice transcribing English, which, for many people, provides additional insight into how the language sounds and why language learning is challenging. This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules.

Phonology is the study of how languages organize their sounds. Each language has its own rules or constraints on what sounds they use, what combinations of sound are allowed, and how sounds change in different environments. This module will first look at some of the patterns of English but will then explore a number of phenomena across the world's languages. Problem sets, or small linguistic puzzles, will help us figure our patterns and train us to look for other patterns in the languages we encounter. This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules. However, it is helpful if you have taken phonetics or have some familiarity with the IPA.

Sociolinguistics explores how society uses language. This includes how we view a “standard dialect”, how different groups of people or demographics use language differently from that dialect, how languages varies over geographic regions, and how we use language to create identity or exclude. We will look at the dialects of the US, their vocabulary, sounds, and structures, as well as other countries and regions. Why do I say “frappe, bubbler, and clicker”? And why do they sound like “frap, bubbla, and clicka”? Do you drink “soda, coke, pop, or what?” This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules.

Syntax explores how phrases and sentences are built. We will explore word order in the world's languages, questions, ideas about what underlies our spoken language and how we can delve deeper into our own languages. Why do some languages look like they have no subjects? How do we build a sentence in English? What can we do to it? What can I move around, and how does this work in other languages? This module can be taken by itself or as part of a larger Introductory Linguistics sequence of modules.

ghojlu’meH QaQ jajvam! (“Today is a good day to learn!”) Klingons: the bumpy-headed warrior race from Star Trek that is obsessed with honor and glory. You’ve heard about people who learn to speak Klingon, and now you can join their ranks. This course will teach students how to read and speak the Warrior’s Tongue. Start with basic grammar and work up to complex sentences. Learn Klingon’s complex inventory of prefixes and suffixes. By the end of this course, you will be able to read and converse in basic Klingon. Qapla’! (“Success!”).

After Klingon 1, those students wishing to continue their Klingon experience can take Klingon 2, the final module in the Klingon series.

So you've learned to speak basic Klingon. But, do you know the correct response when a Klingon tells you a secret? What does it mean if a Klingon says you're using a big scoop? Why do Klingons mix up their words when making toasts? How do you address your loved ones in private and in public? Why are some Klingons mispronouncing certain words? This course, which assumes you have completed Klingon 1, will teach you about the cultural nuances of the Klingon language, including its slang, idioms, dialects, argot, forms of address, familial terms, ritualized speech, measurements, and mathematics.

ghojlu’meH QaQ jajvam! (“Today is a good day to learn!”) Klingons: the bumpy-headed warrior race from Star Trek that is obsessed with honor and glory. You’ve heard about people who learn to speak Klingon, and now you can join their ranks. This course will teach students how to read and speak the Warrior’s Tongue. Start with basic grammar and work up to complex sentences. Learn Klingon’s complex inventory of prefixes and suffixes. By the end of this course, you will be able to read and converse in basic Klingon. Qapla’! (“Success!”).

After Klingon 1, those students wishing to continue their Klingon experience can take Klingon 2, the final module in the Klingon series.

Tolkien wrote a grammar of the Adunaic language, the language of Númenor, as part of his Notion Club Papers in the 1940s. Unlike his other language invention, this work was never revisited and so, even though it is incomplete, we don’t have to sort through multiple layers of corrections and changes-of-mind. This is an uncharacteristically “clean” description of one of Tolkien’s languages.

In this module, we’ll take on the role of budding philologists, working our way through the “Report”. We’ll not only get more insight into Tolkien’s language invention but into grammar, philology, and linguistics in general. We’ll draw comparisons with “real” languages of the primary world and see how languages were described in the tradition Tolkien was trained in.

In this puzzle-solving course we will work to piece together Tolkien’s invented languages based primarily on how they are used in The Lord of the Rings. Although much richer linguistic information became publicly available later, this course will look primarily at those aspects of the languages revealed through the main text and appendices of The Lord of the Rings.

This module will study various writing systems invented or adapted by Tolkien. We will primarily look at the Tengwar and the Angerthas (Cirth) described in The Lord of the Rings but we will also touch on other systems such as the Hobbit runes and other runic variants as well as the Goblin Alphabet from Letters from Father Christmas. Along the way we will introduce some basic phonetics and place Tolkien’s inventions in the context of the writing systems of the primary world.

Many people do not realize the variety of language structures and strange language phenomena that exist in the world's languages. This class will introduce a number of features that can be found across the globe. These include object agreement, verbs that necessarily encode the shape of items, ergativity, discourse particles, languages with 20 grammatical gender classes, pronoun hierarchies, circumfixes and infixes, and the complex systems of taboo words that arise in some languages. We will look at a number of these, at what is rare, common, surprising, but all of which are real. Language families from Africa, the Caucasus, Siberia, Australia, and the Americas.