'Objects In Space'
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
OK, speaking as a mostly-non-fanboy... WTF? They already have one made-up language but that's not good enough for them?
OK, Trek just has Klingon, right? Star Wars has no made up languages, right? (I mean, no one's tried to figure out the language Chewey or RD-D2 speaks, right?)
Star Wars has plenty of made up languages. Return of the Jedi even had a song that was originally written in English and then translated: [link]
note: YouTube is blocked for me at work. I'm not 100% sure that link is correct.
You have to remember Tolkien was a philologist. He spoke Old Icelandic, Old English, Middle English and Welsh. He was obsessed with how the languages developed. One might say that his books were just a reason to explain his invented languages.
Huh. Learn something new every day....
OK, Trek just has Klingon, right?
Romulan and Vulcan, too.
Star Wars has no made up languages, right?
Chewbacca speaks Shyriiwook. [link] There's also Huttese, the Ewok language, and a whole bunch of other dialects.
Basically, tommy, if there's even a fragment to go by, some fanperson has tried to build a language from it.
Yeah, but are they cannon?
Yeah, but are they canon?
As in, did Lucas build the entire language set? Or as in, did the languages appear in the movies and official novels and have a recognizable pattern, allowing for translation?
I'm writing a fantasy novel and this is meaningless to me. That seems wrong.
It is not. It may affect your geek cred in general, it won't hurt the novel you are writing. There are very few who have the linguistic skills to come up with a reasonable language such that they should even attempt to write a language into their world in imitation of JRRT, and fewer still who can manage all the rest of world-building and then write a decent story into the bargain. Poor imitations are no favor to any reader, so you might as well strike off on your own. Especially since there are a zillion ways to tell a good tale using different methods.
Yeah, but are they cannon?
Maybe if you stuffed them into an artillery shell.
Let's not forget the two written alien languages on Futurama which the show teaches you how to read over the course of its run so you can get extra jokes.
JRRT's day job was a linguistics professor. Don't try this at home.
Tolkien learned Latin, French and German from his mother, and while at school he learned Middle English, Old English, Finnish, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Old Norse, Spanish, Welsh, and Medieval Welsh. He was also familiar with Danish, Dutch, Lombardic, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Middle Dutch, Middle High German, Middle Low German, Old High German, Old Slavonic, and Lithuanian.