Constructed Languages. Constructed Languages are those which are intended to be spoken Programming Languages for computers do not constitute constructed.

Constructed Languages

• Constructed Languages are those which are intended to be spoken

• Programming Languages for computers do not constitute constructed languages

• There are hundreds of Conlangs, but most are only known or spoken by their inventor

• Some of the most widely known conlangs are those of science fiction or fantasy, such as Quenya invented by J.R.R. Tolkien and Klingon invented by Marc Okrand.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Tolkien’s Quenya• Quenya, or High-Elven, was first

invented in 1915, before Tolkien had written any of the Lord of The Rings novels.

The language evolved and developed throughout Tolkien’s life, and while the general style remained the same, the Quenya of Lord of The Ring’s was far different from that of 1915

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

• The actual structure of Quenya is similar to that of Latin or Finnish

• It is a highly grammatical language involving lots of cases and other inflections

• There are very few consonant clusters used in Quenya. Only one is used at the start of words (qu) and none used at the end. Words end in a single consonant, or more often a vowel.

• In the middle of words, there are only about 50 consonant clusters ever used. The reason for this is that Tolkein designed the language to look good, he clearly felt that limiting clusters of consonants simply looked better

• Quenya nouns have ten cases, much like those of Latin, and four numbers

• Each case has its own ending in each of the numbers

• A declension: Cirya (the ‘c’ is prounounced as a ‘k’) meaning

ship:Singular: nominative cirya "a ship", (accusative cirya in archaic Book Quenya only,) dative ciryan "for a ship", genitive ciryo "a ship's, of/from a ship", possessive ciryava "of a ship", locative ciryasse "on/in a ship", allative ciryanna "to a ship", ablative ciryallo "from a ship", instrumental ciryanen "with/by a ship", respective ciryas

The Article • There is only one article in Quenya: i meaning ‘the’

• Any other word without this article is assumed to be indefinite

• To say “i eleni” means “the stars” while “elen” means “a star”

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

The Verb• Two groups of verb: The first smaller group is made

up of basic root words with no ending “tul” is a root word meaning “come”

• The second larger group is made up of these root words with additional endings to modify them. From the root “Tul-” comes “Tulta -to summon” and “Tulya- to bring”

• Five tenses: Aorist, present, past, perfect and future. Tolkien meant for aorist to signify general, timeless truths, but the aorist tense is translated to the English present tense, whereas the Quenya present is usually translated with the “-ing” construction

• There is a group of irregular verbs that don’t fit into the common structure, but there are not nearly as many of these

• There are similar constructions and rules for all other parts of speech, a full list of rules can be found here: http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/quenya.htm

• Several people have compiled English-Quenya dictionaries, some with over 3,000 words.

• Even after his death, the language of Tolkien continues to develop and evolve through people who have followed the pattern of what he started in his life and never finished

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Klingon• Klingon was invented by Marc

Okrand after he was approached by Paramount to construct a new language for use in the Star Trek films

• Okrand developed the language around a few words that had been written already, and after the spawn of many Star Trek spinoffs, the language took on a life of its own

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Grammar• Nouns take suffixes to

indicate number, gender, possession and sytnax. There are 29 total noun suffixes

• Verbs take prefixes indicating number and person of the subject and object, and several suffixes indicating various other aspects of the word usage.

• The most common word order is Object-Verb-Subject

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Phonology• The language was developed as an alien one, so while many of

the aspects are taken from natural languages, Okrand combined them in an intentionally guttural and harsh sounding way.

• Klingon’s library of consonants is large and difficult to understand but it’s usage of vowels is relativley simple:

• Vowels: • <a> ﾑ /ɑ/ ﾑ open back unrounded vowel (in English spa)• <e> ﾑ /ɛ/ ﾑ open-mid front unrounded vowel (in English bed)• <I> ﾑ /ɪ/ ﾑ near-close near-front unrounded vowel (in

English bit)• <o> ﾑ /o/ ﾑ close-mid back rounded vowel (in French

oiseaux)• <u> ﾑ /u/ ﾑ close back rounded vowel (in Spanish cura)

• Okrand, along with others, has published dictionaries and guides for speaking Klingon, while others have translated texts into Klingon, including Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing

• Dr. d’Armond Speers and his wife attempted to raise their child bilingually in both English and Klingon, the experiment was stopped, however, when the child could not find Klingon words for common items(diaper, table, pacifier) and rejected the language

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

• There are many constructed languages that have real world uses, such as Esperanto, which was developed as an international auxiliary language. Like Klingon, it combines aspects of natural languages, but does so in a way to foster communication. Esperanto is the most widely spoken conlang.

• For a list on conlangs check out this site: http://www2.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~jrk/conlang.html