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Constructed Languages

Klingon Language - About Constructed Languages

The Klingon Language is a Constructed Language. "At some point in the next century the number of invented languages will probably overtake the number of surviving natural languages." - Cullen Murphy in Atlantic Monthly (October 1995)

Constructed languages (also known as model languages) are sometimes referred to as Conlangs and those who speak and invent them are called Conlangers.

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King featured Quenya and Sindarin two forms of Elvish, the constructed language created by author J.R.R Tolkien in the 1930’s.

  • A larger model language might be an entire dialect or slang, based on English. In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess writes the entire book in Nadsat, a slang he has teenagers speak in post-modern Britain.

  • Since 1979, Klingon has been featured in Star Trek movies and television shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation.

  • In 1887, Ludwig Zamenhof, a Polish occulist created Esperanto, perhaps the best-known constructed language. It was meant to be an easy-to-learn, politically neutral, global tongue that might bridge cultural barriers. Today, there may be several million Esperanto speakers globally.

    Constructed or model languages can be everything from a few words of made-up slang to a rigorously developed system of interrelated imaginary tongues. They tend to exist on paper and on the Internet, and may be shared only with a few close friends. Or in the larger scheme of things, as with the Klingon language, they may be used to give depth to imaginary worlds that millions of people read about or watch in movies and on television.

    Millions of people have created model languages of some small scope. Many children invent their own secret vocabularies to share with friends. A recent Oprah Winfrey Show examined the secret sex slang some teenagers use to describe their activities (Rainbow Party = Oral Sex party). As researched on the Internet, there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of constructed languages in existence. But traditional educators don’t encourage this kind of creativity. Instead, students are taught rigid dictionary definitions that often eliminates any interest in the wellspring of language.

    Model languages demystify and demythologize the study of language. Far too often, our desire to learn to express ourselves with language, to create new words, has been suppressed in favor of rigid conformance to the norm.


    Have you heard of any of the following constructed languages?

  • Furbish: The fun, simple language of Furby toys

  • Atlantean: The language spoken in Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire (another Marc Okrand creation)

  • Lapin: The rabbit language spoken in Richard Adams’ novel, Watership Down.

    The model languages mentioned above were invented for fun, fictional uses, but model languages can also be developed to address other issues, including personal, political, philosophical, religious, and symbolic communication.


    Research Note: numerous websites exist on the subject of constructed languages. Two of them used to develop this text include websites from Jeffrey Henning and Richard Kennaway who provide comprehensive lists and descriptions of conglangs at:

  • www.LangMaker.com (Jeffery Henning)
  • www2.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~jrk/conlang.html (Richard Kennaway)

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