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Making Your Own Fictional Language | Rainie Sun | TEDxWestern Canada HS

The speaker argues that creating a fictional language from scratch requires fundamental understanding of phonetics and grammar, rather than merely substituting words from an existing dictionary. Creating a language involves mastering complex sounds, such as dental, alveolar, and palatal clicks, and establishing grammatical rules like Subject-Verb-Object word order. Practical applications for constructed languages include creating auxiliary languages like Esperanto or developing writing systems, as exemplified by J.R.R. Tolkien's creation of Khuzdul.

## Theses & Positions
- Creating a language must start from foundational components like phonetics or mouth sounds, rather than systematic word replacement using an existing dictionary.
- Language creation involves mastering concepts like vowels, consonants, and complex sounds such as clicking.
- Implementing a language requires establishing basic grammatical structures, specifically the subject-verb-object (SVO) word order.
- Creating a language can be a fun, mentally challenging, and creative pursuit, akin to advanced mathematics.
- Constructed languages have real-world applications, such as facilitating international conversation via auxiliary languages.

## Concepts & Definitions
- **Fictional Language:** A constructed language that does not actually exist in the natural world.
- **Plagiarism (Linguistics version):** Systematically replacing words from an existing dictionary without original creation.
- **Vowels and Consonants:** Basic components of speech sounds.
- **Clicking Sounds:** Complex consonantal sounds that can be incorporated into languages (e.g., dental, alveolar, palatal clicks).
- **Grammar:** The system of rules governing how a language must be used to form correct sentences.
- **Subject-Verb-Object (SVO):** The basic required word order for a sentence (Subject $\rightarrow$ Verb $\rightarrow$ Object).
- **Transposition of Word Order:** Reversing the SVO order (e.g., Object-Verb-Subject) changes syntax but not the core meaning of the action.
- **Neography:** The act of making writing systems for oneself.
- **Logographic System:** A writing system where a single character represents an entire word (as seen in Chinese).
- **Abugida/Alphasyllary:** A writing system structure where a base consonant is combined with a vowel marker placed above it.
- **Auxiliary Language (Auxlang):** A constructed language created specifically to facilitate human conversation more easily (e.g., Esperanto).

## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Language Creation from Scratch:** Starting with fundamental sounds (phonemes) like vowels and consonants, rather than merely substituting words.
- **Phonetic Replication:** Demonstrating specific, hard-to-replicate mouth sounds:
    - **Dental Click:** Made by placing the tip of the tongue to the roots of the teeth at the back of the mouth.
    - **Alveolar Click:** A specific clicking sound demonstrated by the speaker.
    - **Palatal Click:** A louder clicking sound demonstrated by the speaker.
- **Grammatical Structure:** Establishing that every sentence fundamentally requires a subject, a verb, and an object.
- **Writing System Construction:** Creating self-made writing systems, ranging from simple alphabets (e.g., a 40-letter alphabet) to complex logographic or abugida/alphasyllary forms.
- **Language Development Example (Tolkien):** J.R.R. Tolkien started writing Khuzdul before writing the first draft of *The Lord of the Rings*, leading to the book series.
- **Auxiliary Language Development:** Esperanto was created with the specific aim of making human conversation easier.

## Timeline & Sequence
- **Pre-Existing Example:** Klingon is a fictional language from *Star Trek*, demonstrating the concept of a non-natural language.
- **Instructional Sequence:** Start with basic sounds $\rightarrow$ Master clicks $\rightarrow$ Understand grammar (SVO) $\rightarrow$ Develop writing system (Neography/Abugida) $\rightarrow$ See historical example (Tolkien) $\rightarrow$ See functional example (Esperanto).

## Named Entities
- **Klingon:** A fictional language from the *Star Trek* universe.
- **Star Trek:** Fictional source of Klingon language.
- **Esperanto:** An auxiliary language that does not naturally exist, created for ease of conversation.
- **J.R.R. Tolkien:** Author who wrote *The Lord of the Rings* and created the language Khuzdul.
- **Khuzdul:** The language created by J.R.R. Tolkien.
- **Man (as an object):** Used in the example sentence *“oranges ate Sam,”* implying a hypothetical sci-fi scenario.

## Numbers & Data
- The speaker notes that the clicks shown required **3 Days** to replicate properly.
- Esperanto has a notable community: **800 people** can speak it fluently today.

## Examples & Cases
- **The Dictionary Pitfall:** Using a dictionary to systematically replace words in another language is deemed uncreative and boring.
- **Grammatical Deviation:** The sentence *“oranges ate Sam”* illustrates SVO violation, which changes the apparent subject/object roles.
- **Writing System Variation:** Examples include creating a **40-letter alphabet** versus a more complex **logographic system**.
- **Script Recognition:** The **Abugida/Alphasyllary** format is recognizable to speakers of Hindi or Sanskrit, noting it is the same structure used in Devanagari.
- **Tolkien's Creation:** Tolkien wrote Khuzdul *before* writing the first draft of *The Lord of the Rings*.

## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Dictionary:** Mentioned as an insufficient starting point for language creation.
- **Google Translate:** Used as an example of a technological tool that can reveal non-natural language constructs.

## References Cited
- **Star Trek:** Source of the Klingon language.
- ***The Lord of the Rings* series:** Source of the Khuzdul language.
- **Esperanto:** An existing example of a successful auxiliary language.

## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Systematic Word Replacement vs. Original Creation:** The speaker strongly prefers building from scratch over merely substituting existing words.
- **Script Systems:** Alternatives include building a pure alphabet versus a logographic system versus an abugida/alphasyllary structure.
- **Natural Language vs. Constructed Language:** Natural languages are complex; constructed languages (auxlangs) are designed for artificial simplification.

## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The speaker preemptively addresses the difficulty of the process, comparing it to saying calculus is fun.
- The speaker notes that the "man eating oranges" scenario is likely a product of "demented sci-fi novel somewhere."

## Methodology
- **Phonetic Demonstration:** Explicitly teaching and demonstrating physical mouth sounds (dental, alveolar, palatal clicks).
- **Grammar Rules:** Establishing the SVO word order as the foundational grammar rule for constructed languages.
- **Linguistic Modeling:** Using established linguistic concepts (logography, abugida) to explain potential writing system creation.

## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The primary recommendation is to approach language creation creatively from phonetics, not from existing vocabulary.
- The best approach for functional communication is developing an auxiliary language like Esperanto.
- The final sign-off encourages saying "Gapa" and "Mawa" as a simple goodbye in two different languages.

## Implications & Consequences
- The most significant implication is that language, at its deepest level, is a combination of structured sound (phonetics) and agreed-upon rules (grammar).
- The existence of auxlangs proves that human linguistic capacity can be deliberately channeled for universal mutual understanding.

## Verbatim Moments
- *"no if you're as much of a degenerate nerd as I am you probably recognize no NE as being Kling on or cing on ho"*
- *"it's a fictional language it's a language that doesn't actually exist"*
- *"you are essentially doing the Linguistics version of plagiarism"*
- *"you start with Phonatics or mouth sounds"*
- *"I'm talking about kosa"*
- *"dental click phonetically this is spelled Tu or TSK"*
- *"there's also the alveolar click which sounds like this"*
- *"last but not least there's the Pilato click which sounds like this"*
- *"every single sentence will have a subject a verb and an object"*
- *"oranges did not eat Sam however it just sounds like that because of the way I formatted it"*
- *"neography is just making writing systems for yourself"*
- *"or you can be slightly more creative than that and make a logo graphic system"*
- *"I just SP a bunch of whole new words and terms"*
- *"Kenya from The Lord of the Ring series by JRR tolken"*
- *"it's like what math people say when they do differential calculus or whatever that's called"*
- *"a language on there that doesn't actually exist and it's called Esperanto"*
- *"gapa and Mawa or just because I spoke two different languages"*