Conlangery Shorts 35: You Need a Conlang
George wants to talk to writers, filmmakers, and creatives about how conlangs can benefit worldbuilding, and how you can go about getting one made. Links: Language Creation Society Resources Page LCS Jobs Board Original Script In this episode, I want to talk to authors, directors, and other creatives who are creating fictional worlds and cultures where a conlang might be really helpful for their work. I am going to talk to you about how creating a conlang or hiring a conlanger to create a conlang can help you add depth to your world and characters. I’ll also talk a little bit about the other things that have been done to represent languages and where they do and do not work. Before we get there, Conlangery is entirely supported by our patrons on Patreon. If you go to patreon.com/conlangery, you can get early episodes and even get access to my scripts for these shorts as I am writing them. I know that not everyone can pitch in, but I really appreciate anyone who does. Alright, so let me start by stating the case for what purpose a conlang serves in a story. Many stories in speculative fiction involve fictional people, aliens, spirits, or other beings that are capable of language. Often these people or creatures have rich worldbuilding in their fictional culture and histories. Having them speak a real language that connects to the culture is very valuable to the work because it adds another layer to that worldbuilding. A well constructed conlang will enhance the culture and give you ways to introduce information about how these people think and what their history is, and the names and dialogue generated adds something that will make your people feel real. Conlanging is in part a research and worldbuilding exercise, and in part its own separate artform. In film, you likely have a team working on costumes who spend hours researching period appropriate attire or cultures similar to the ones on screen, though they also are ultimately creating something of their own design. The same would be true of conlangers. We will research languages to learn what fits into your story, and use what we know to develop a unique work of art that ties into the rest of the worldbuilding. Before I discuss more about the business of adding a conlang to your work, let’s talk briefly about what the alternatives to using a conlang are, because there are a few. First of all, there’s straight gibberish. Artistically, this is the worst option outside of a parody. Weiss and Benioff considered using just gibberish for Dothraki, but decided to hire a conlanger instead, because gibberish simply wasn’t cutting it. Doing this would be disrespectful to your readers or viewers, because if you do not have a system to your language and meaning assigned to the words, people will figure it out. If done poorly enough, even casual listening will tell you that these are English speaking actors making it up on the spot. Something similar could be said of sound effect languages, like Shriiwook in Star Wars. That’s essentially gibberish dressed up with sound design. Some voice modulation can be a fun gimmick, but without meaningful words behind it, it remains just a gimmick. Similarly, altered speech in your target audience’s language, like the manipulated English or Japanese in Animal Crossing , is just a gimmick. It may be useful for comedy or where you don’t really want a fully realized culture and language, but it’s definitely not a replacement for a conlang. An alternative that a lot of people bring up is simply using real world languages to represent languages in your world. Some people even suggest that this might “help” minority languages by “raising awareness”. Here is why I think that idea generally does not work out. When the Star Wars sequels were starting, there was a Tumblr post going around saying something along the lines of “Let Poe speak Spanish.” The idea in the post was that since Oscar Isaac is Hispanic (born in Guatemala), it would be somehow cool for him