Dialect Coach Explains the Structure of Six Fictional Languages Constructed for Film and Television

Master dialect coach Erik Singer took a detailed look at the origins and structure of six fictional languages that were solely constructed for film, television and books. Singer explains that such “con-langs” (constructed languages) as Na’vi (Avatar), Dothraki (Game of Thrones), Klingon (Star Trek), Sindarin (J.R.R. Tolkien), Parseltongue (Harry Potter) and Ewokese (Star Wars) were all created to mimic natural language, meaning grammar, syntax, pronunciation and punctuation all had to be developed from scratch. Singer also touched upon other con-langs such as Shyriiwook, Divine Language, Mork Speak, Groot Speak, Malkovich, Furbish and Heptapod.

Making up a whole language from scratch in a way that mimics a natural language that has a whole system of sounds and grammar and syntax, all of that but also has the inconsistencies and strangenesses that natural languages do. That’s an extraordinary task and the amount of work that goes into it is just mind-boggling.