To many, one of the coolest things about "Game of Thrones" is that the inhabitants of the Dothraki Sea have their own real language. And Dothraki came hot on the heels of the real language that the Na'vi speak in "Avatar," which, surely, the Na'vi needed when the Klingons in "Star Trek" have had their own whole language since 1979. And let's not forget the Elvish languages in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, especially since that was the official grandfather of the fantasy conlangs. "Conlang" is short for "constructed language." They're more than codes like Pig Latin, and they're not just collections of fabricated slang like the Nadsat lingo that the teen hoodlums in "A Clockwork Orange" speak, where "droog" from Russian happens to mean "friend." What makes conlangs real languages isn't the number of words they have. It helps, of course, to have a lot of words. Dothraki has thousands of words. Na'vi started with 1,500 words. Fans on websites have steadily created more. But we can see the difference between vocabulary alone and what makes a real language from a look at how Tolkien put together grand old Elvish, a conlang with several thousands words. After all, you could memorize 5,000 words of Russian and still be barely able to construct a sentence. A four-year-old would talk rings around you. That's because you have to know how to put the words together. That is, a real language has grammar. Elvish does. In English, to make a verb past, you add an "-ed." Wash, washed. In Elvish, "wash" is "allu" and "washed" is "allune." Real languages also change over time. There's no such thing as a language that's the same today as it was a thousand years ago. As people speak, they drift into new habits, shed old ones, make mistakes, and get creative. Today, one says, "Give us today our daily bread." In Old English, they said, "Urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us todaeg." Things change in conlangs, too. Tolkien charted out ancient and newer versions of Elvish. When the first Elves awoke at Cuiviénen, in their new language, the word for "people" was "kwendi," but in the language of one of the groups that moved away, Teleri, over time, "kwendi" became "pendi," with the "k" turning into a "p." And just like real languages, conlangs like Elvish split off into many. When the Romans transplanted Latin across Europe, French, Spanish, and Italian were born. When groups move to different places, over time, their ways of speaking grow apart, just like everything else about them. Thus, Latin's word for hand was "manus," but in French, it became "main," while in Spain it became "mano." Tolkien made sure Elvish did the same kind of thing. While that original word "kwendi" became "pendi" among the Teleri, among the Avari, who spread throughout Middle Earth, it became "kindi" when the "w" dropped out. The Elvish varieties Tolkien fleshed out the most are Quenya and Sindarin, and their words are different in the same way French and Spanish are. Quenya has "suc" for "drink," Sindarin has "sog." And as you know, real languages are messy. That's because they change, and change has a way of working against order, just like in a living room or on a bookshelf. Real languages are never perfectly logical. That's why Tolkien made sure that Elvish had plenty of exceptions. Lots of verbs are conjugated in ways you just have to know. Take even the word "know." In the past, it's "knew," which isn't explained by any of the rules in English. Oh well. In Elvish, "know" is "ista," but "knew" is "sinte." Oh well. The truth is, though, that Elvish is more a sketch for a real language than a whole one. For Tolkien, Elvish was a hobby rather than an attempt to create something people could actually speak. Much of the Elvish the characters in the "Lord of the Rings" movies speak has been made up since Tolkien by dedicated fans of Elvish based on guesses as to what Tolkien would have constructed. That's the best we can do for Elvish because there are no actual Elves around to speak it for us. But the modern conlangs go further. Dothraki, Na'vi, and Klingon are developed enough that you can actually speak them. Here's a translation of "Hamlet" into Klingon, although performing it would mean getting used to pronouncing "k" with your uvula, that weird, cartoony thing hanging in the back of your throat. Believe it or not, you actually do that in plenty of languages around the world, like Eskimo ones. Pronouncing Elvish is much easier, though. So, let's take our leave for now from this introduction to conlangs in Elvish and the other three conlangs discussed with a heartfelt quad-conlangual valedictory: "A Na Marie!" "Hajas!" Na'vi's "Kiyevame!" "Qapla!" and "Goodbye!"
Za mnoge je ena izmed najbolj kul stvari pri "Igri prestolov", da imajo prebivalci Dothraškega morja svoj lastni pravi jezik. In Dothraki so sledili pravemu jeziku, ki ga Na'vi govorijo v "Avatarju", ki so ga, zagotovo, Na'vi potrebovali, ker so Klingoni v "Star Treku" imeli svoj lasten jezik že od 1979. In ne pozabimo na vilinske jezike v trilogiji "Gospodar prstanov" J. R. R. Tolkiena, še posebej zato, ker je bil to uradni dedek fantazijskih umetnih jezikov. "Conlang je angleška skovanka za 'constructed language' oz. umetni jezik. So več kot samo šifre pri prašičji latinščini, in niso samo zbirka izmišljenega slenga, kot je Nadsat govorica, ki jo najstniški huligani govorijo v "Peklenski pomaranči", kjer droog iz ruščine pomeni prijatelj. Kar naredi umetne jezike prave jezike, ni število besed, ki jih imajo. Pomaga, seveda, da imaš veliko besed. Dothraščina ima na tisoče besed. Jezik Na'vi je začel s 1500 besedami. Oboževalci na internetnih straneh so jih vztrajno ustvarili več. Ampak lahko vidimo razliko med samo besediščem in med tem, kar naredi jezik resničen, če pogledamo, kako je Tolkien sestavil veličastno staro vilinščino, umetni jezik z več tisoč besedami. Navsezadnje, lahko si zapomnite 5000 besed v ruščini in še vedno komaj sestavite stavek. Štiriletnik bi se norčeval iz vas. To je zato, ker morate vedeti, kako skupaj postaviti besede. Se pravi, resnični jezik ima slovnico. Vilinščina jo ima. V angleščini, da naredimo preteklik, dodamo "-ed" Wash, washed. (Perem, sem pral.) V vilinščini, je wash allu in washed allune. Pravi jeziki se prav tako spreminjajo s časom. Ne obstaja jezik, ki je enak danes, kot je bil tisoč let nazaj. Ko ljudje govorijo, zdrsnejo v nove navade, se znebijo starih, delajo napake in so ustvarjalni. Danes, nekdo reče, "Give us today our daily bread." (Daj nam danes naš vsakdanji kruh.) V stari angleščini bi rekli "Urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us todaeg." (Kruh naš vsedanji daj nam danas) Stvari se spreminjajo tudi pri umetnih jezikih. Tolkien je je začrtal starodavno in novejšo različico vilinščine. Ko so se prvi Vilini zbudili na Cuivienenu, je bila v njihovem novem jeziku beseda za ljudi kwendi, ampak v jeziku ene izmed skupin, ki se je odselila, Telerijev, je čez čas kwendi postal pendi, k se je spremenil v p. In kot v resničnih jezikih, se umetni jeziki, kot je vilinščina, razcepijo v mnoge. Ko so Rimljani razširili latinščino čez Evropo, so se rodile francoščina, španščina in italijanščina. Ko se skupine selijo na različne kraje, se čez čas njihov način govora razide tako kot vse drugo. Torej, latinska beseda za roko je manus, ampak v francoščini je main, medtem ko je v španščini postala mano. Tolkien je poskrbel, da je bilo v vilinščini enako. Ko je prvotna beseda kwendi postala pendi med Teleriji, je med Avari, ki so se razširili po Srednjem svetu, postala kindi, ko je izpadel w. Različici vilinščine, ki ju je Tolkien najbolj razvil, sta Quenya in Sindarin in njune besede so si različne, kot sta si različni francoščina in španščina. Qenya ima za pijačo suc, Sindarin pa sog. In, kot veste, pravi jeziki so neurejeni. To je zato, ker se spreminjajo, in sprememba pogosto deluje proti urejenosti, tako kot v dnevni sobi ali pa na polici s knjigami. Pravi jeziki nikoli niso popolnoma logični. Zato je Tolkien poskrbel, da ima vilinščina mnogo izjem. Veliko glagolov se sklanja na način, ki ga preprosto morate vedeti. Vzemimo celo besedo know (vedeti). V pretekliku je knew (sem vedel), česar ne razložijo nobena pravila angleščine. Ah, ja. V vilinščini je know ista in knew sinte. Ah, ja. Ampak resnica je, da je vilinščina bolj zasnova pravega jezika, kot celota. Za Tolkiena je bila vilinščina bolj hobi, kot pa namen ustvariti nekaj, kar bi ljudje lahko dejansko govorili. Veliko vilinščine, ki jo govorijo osebe v filmih "Gospodar prstanov", so si po Tolkienu izmislili predani oboževalci vilinščine, z ugibanji o tem, kaj bi Tolkien ustvaril. To je največ, kar pri vilinščini lahko naredimo, ker tu ni nobenih Vilincev, da bi jo govorili. Ampak moderni umetni jeziki gredo še dlje. Dothraščina, jezik Na'Vi in klingonščina so dovolj razviti, da jih lahko dejansko govorimo. Tu je prevod "Hamleta" v klingonščino, čeprav bi se za uprizarjanje morali navaditi izgovorjave k z uvulo, tisto čudno, risankasto stvarjo, ki visi zadaj v grlu. Verjemite ali ne, to počnejo v mnogih jezikih po svetu, na primer eskimskih. Izgovorjava vilinščine je veliko lažja. Poslovimo se za zdaj od te predstavitve umetnih jezikov v vilinščini in treh drugih umetnih jezikih s prisrčnim štirijezičnim poslovilnim nagovorom: "A na marie!" "Hajas!" Na'vi-jskim "Kiyevame!" "Qapla'!" in "Nasvidenje!"