History Main / Conlang

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' gives us the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarfs_(Discworld)#Language Kad'k.]]

No, they did not just ''[[ShowDontTell say]]'' that the [[TheGreys Aliens]][=/=][[OurElvesAreDifferent Elves]]/BeePeople/Whatever speak a different language, they [[DoingItForTheArt actually made up]] an exact vocabulary and grammar, one that can be translated into English (or equivalent). This is where TranslatorMicrobes are abandoned and a dictionary given to the reader. [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Gibberish]] does not count as a language, regardless of whether or not the other characters say they can understand it, and using a mere handful of [[SpeakingSimlish alien words]], even if you give them a translation, does not count either.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': The creators wrote a language for the gibberish the minions speak. They called it "minion-ese". Each word the minions speak translates into an actual word.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solresol Solresol]] is a constructed language based off of the musical scale (Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti). Each note also corresponds to a color of the rainbow and the single-digit numbers 1 through 7. The language was designed for maximum versatility- Messages can be spoken or written as words or numbers, played on musical instruments, and signaled over long or short distances using colored flags or flares, allowing people who are blind, deaf, mute, and/or dyslexic to communicate in Solresol, one way or another.

* In 1827, Frenchman Francois Sudre invented a language based on solfége, the major scale in music. It could be spoken or written in many ways, from numbers and colors to handsigns and hand-tapping. At the time it was intended as a universal language that included deaf and deaf-blind people, but this was forbidden by French law because it would be [[ValuesDissonance "rewarding" people for being disabled]]. It is also quite easy to confuse the words for each other.

[[caption-width-right:350:Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul[[labelnote:Translation]]\\
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them[[/labelnote]]]]

* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': The ''Nautilus'' crew uses a language that TheProfessor Aronnax cannot recognize, but Verne didn't bother himself making any word of it except ''"Nautron respoc lorni virch."'' that Aronnax thinks must mean: ''"There's nothing in sight."''. Aronnax describes it like this:
-->''"...a language I didn't recognize. It was a sonorous, harmonious, flexible dialect whose vowels seemed to undergo a highly varied accentuation."''
** Given that the ''Nautilus'' crew is a NGOSuperpower, it makes sense this language is a ConLang '''Completely Original''', designed to replace all the other "continental" languages that were original to each of the crew countries that the crew has abandoned. Aronnax observes that just moments before his death, one of the crew forgets to use that ConLang and ask for help in French. A hungry Ned Land also theorizes:
--> ''"Don't you see, these people have a language all to themselves, a [[ConLang language they've invented just to cause despair in decent people who ask for a little dinner!]] Why, in every country on earth, when you open your mouth, snap your jaws, smack your lips and teeth, isn't that the world's most understandable message? From Quebec to the Tuamotu Islands, from Paris to the Antipodes, doesn't it mean: I'm hungry, give me a bite to eat!"''

* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' has the language of Ente Isla, a fantasy world.

* In ''Series/TheBoys'', [[TheSpeechless Kimiko]] communicates with her own unique form of sign language.

* Creator/AndyKaufman created a language for his Foreign Man character when the persona was adapted into Latka Gravas for ''Series/{{Taxi}}''. He later taught it to Carol Kane when she played Simka, taking her to dinner and refusing to speak to her in any language but the one he'd created.

* John Quijada's [[http://www.ithkuil.net/ Ithkuil]] is well-known for packing a lot of meaning into as short a space as possible.

** He reified the Dothraki language for the 1st season of HBO's ''Series/GameOfThrones''. For the 3rd season he also reified High Valyrian, including several rules to transform it into different dialects of Low Valyrian. It's reached the point where Creator/GeorgeRRMartin consults ''him'' on the fragments he puts in later books.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'''s design philosophy is generally to not use fictional languages [[NecessaryWeasel due to the hurdles of maintaining a consistent worldbuilding]], but it happens occasionally:

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solresol Solresol]] is a constructed language based off of the musical scale (Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti). Each note also corresponds to a color of the rainbow and the single-digit numbers 1 through 7. The language was designed for maximum versatility- Messages can be spoken as words or numbers, played on musical instruments, and signaled using colored flags or flares, allowing people who are blind, deaf, mute, and/or dyslexic to communicate in Solresol, one way or another.

* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin knows her stuff. The ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' series has Hardic, which we see a little of. And Kargish, Osskili and [[LanguageOfMagic Old Speech]], in which wizards cast spells. Not that the author is above a pun--the word for stone in [[LanguageOfMagic Old Speech]] is ''tolk'' and that for sea is ''inien'', making ''Earthsea'' translate as... Tolkienian!

* The ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series features a universal language used by all of the species, though the Octolings also have their own separate dialect. Unlike other Creator/{{Nintendo}} series, it cannot be reliably translated; WordOfGod says that it's almost completely random, though the spoken and written parts of language occasionally take cues from both Japanese and English. In addition, there are also the occasional instances of actual English appearing in the game, such as the [=MakoMart=] stage in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' having a cereal box with the word "choco" on it amongst its shelves or the entirety of Ruins of Ark Polaris, which the game strongly hints [[spoiler: was a failed attempt by humans [[TheArk to leave Earth during the apocalypse]], with the aftermath being left to decay in the ocean for millennia.]]

-->'''Troy Kotsur:''' So I was helping consult on the show. And later on, he didn't realize that I was an actor myself, because I didn't want to say, "Hey, by the way, I'm an actor." You know, it would just sound like I was brown-nosing. I really wanted to focus on the sign language. But my manager let them know, and said, "Hey, by the way, Troy is also an actor. Why doesn't he play a Tuscan Raider?"

* In ''Series/TheMandalorian'' and ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'', the Tusken Raiders use a sign language. A hearing person on the team who knew sign language mentioned that a deaf person should consulted. That person became Creator/TroyKotsur, and he developed the language. He also played the lead Tusken Raider.

The complete original sort has picked up in popularity in the recent decades, and especially recent years, with the likes of linguists Mark Okrand and David J. Petersen being hired to provide a fictional language with [[ShownTheirWork completely unique grammars and writing scripts]], the target ostensibly being to make the language in question as far removed from English as possible, so expect a non-SVO word order, tons of grammatical cases, obscure tenses, postpositional adjectives and no articles. And don't even think about your "modern" left-to-right direction of writing! [[note]]Even though it was used by the Sumerian cuneiform script, the oldest in the history of mankind.[[/note]]

* For ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', a language for the Dark Elves was developed by linguist David J. Peterson. (see the Live-Action TV folder for more of his work.)

* Linguist [[Creator/DavidPeterson David J. Peterson]] became the go-to guy for this trope in Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows in TheNewTens: