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!"
對許多人而言 電視劇「權力遊戲」最酷的一點 就是多斯拉克海的原住民 擁有自己真實的語言 多斯拉克語誕生前不久 「阿凡達」電影中, 納美人也有自己獨特的語言 這並不稀奇 電視劇「星艦迷航記」裡 克林貢人也擁有體系完整的語言 早在1979就已經存在了 而且我們不要忘了 「魔戒」作者托爾金 的精靈語 尤其當精靈語是人工語言 "Conlangs"的始祖的時候 Conlang(人工語言) 是Contstucted language的縮寫 人工語言不只單純調動字母順序 也不是隨便集合一些編造的俚語 電影「發條橘子」中 青少年混混的Nadsat話 就不算是人工語言 Nadsat話中 取俄文"droog"來形容朋友 Conlang之所以是 真實的語言 並不在於語言包含了多少詞彙 有很多詞彙固然方便很多 多斯拉克語有幾千字 納美語一開始有1500字 影迷又日漸增加新的詞彙 但是我們知道 詞彙和真正語言其實有差異 托爾金如何創造古精靈語 就是一個很好的例子 古精靈語只有幾千字但結構完整 畢竟即使熟背 5000個俄文單字 你也不一定能夠靈活造句 可能連個四歲小孩都比你厲害 如何把字詞串連在一起才是重點 也就是說, 真正的語言有文法 精靈語有文法 要把英文動詞改成過去式 要在字尾加上"-ed" 如"wash"(洗) 過去式為washed 精靈語的「洗」是"allu" 過去式是"allune" 真實語言也會因為時間而改變 沒有一個語言現在的樣貌 和幾千年前一模一樣 人們說話常會衍生出新習慣 淘汰舊說法、出現口誤 或創造一些新用語 人們說, 「我們日用的飲食,今日賜給我們」 其實源自古英文 "Urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us todaeg." 人工語言也隨時間而改變 托爾金編造出不同時期的精靈語 精靈在庫維因恩一帶甦醒 他們的新語言中 「人們」是"kwendi" 但是其中有一支 「帖勒瑞族」漸漸遠行 帖勒瑞語"kwendi" 漸漸成了"pendi" k 變成了 p 就像所有真實語言一樣 人工語言也有許多分支 羅馬人將拉丁文帶入歐洲大陸 演化成法、西、義語 族群遷移的同時 說話方式也日漸不同 各種習慣也會日漸迥異 拉丁文的「手」是"manus" 但法文中變成"main" 西文則是"mano" 托爾金創造精靈語也是一樣 除了帖勒瑞族 把"kwendi"改成"pendi" 散佈整個中亞大陸的亞維瑞族 用"kindi"來指「人們」 也就是省略了一個 w 托爾金最精細創造的兩種精靈語 分別是昆雅語和辛達林語 就像法文和西文 字源相同但字詞不同 昆雅語的「喝」是"suc" 辛達林語則是用"sog" 當然... 真實語言其實更複雜 因為語言時常在改變 而且往往衍生許多例外 就像我們說: 在客廳「裡」 但是說: 在書架「上」 真實語言不會完全符合邏輯 托爾金注意到這一點 所以精靈語也有很多例外 很多動詞的變化 你就是必須記住 如英文字"know"(知道) 過去式是"knew" 英文文法無法解釋 這樣的動詞變化 唉好吧! 精靈語裡面, 「知道」是"ista" 但是過去式是"sinte" 唉好吧! 不過事實上 精靈語其實比較像 一個真實語言的雛形 發明精靈語是托爾金的興趣 托爾金沒有意圖創造 一個可以真正使用的語言 現今存在的精靈語 像是「魔戒」電影裡的精靈語 都是在托爾金後 影迷猜測托爾金想法 繼續創造精靈語 也只能這樣了! 因為現實中沒有精靈 能夠說精靈語給我們聽 但是現代人工語言更不得了 多斯拉克語、納美語、克林貢語 都已經發展非常成熟 人們可以真的口說這些語言 已經有克林貢版的「哈姆雷特」 雖然翻譯成克林貢語後 需要習慣發k音的時候要運用小舌 也就是喉嚨後方一個垂垂的東西 不論你相不相信 其實很多語言都必須用到小舌 例如很多愛斯基摩方言都是如此 精靈語發音簡單多了 好, 現在先休息一下 以上是精靈語 和另外三種人工語言的簡介 讓我們用四種人工語言來作結尾 "A na marie!" "Hajas!" 納美語的"Kiyevame!" "Qapla!" “再見!”