Beyond simple aesthetics, someone might be drawn to a conlang because of the worldview built into it. Every language is embedded with the cultural perspectives of its speakers, fictional or otherwise. In Klingon, for instance, there is no verb “to be.” “Klingons don’t say somebody is happy. They say you are going through the experience of happiness,” Lipscombe says. “You are happy-ing. You are sad-ing. That’s a temporary thing. It’s not something you are.” Na’vi performs a similar twist of perspective for English speakers by making the word “tok,” which describes being somewhere, a verb that takes an object. In Na’vi, you do not simply exist in a space—you happen to that place. Those elements of a fictional culture might resonate with someone regardless of their attachment to the fictional characters.
In our latest, Maria Temming reports on fictional constructed language—aka conlang—communities, and the ways those languages can bring fans closer to the source material.
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Na’vi, Klingon, and other conlangs get more use IRL than they ever have onscreen.
