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To many, one of the coolest things
about "Game of Thrones"

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is that the inhabitants
of the Dothraki Sea

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have their own real language.

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And Dothraki came hot on the heels

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of the real language
that the Na'vi speak in "Avatar,"

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which, surely, the Na'vi needed

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when the Klingons in "Star Trek" have had
their own whole language since 1979.

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And let's not forget the Elvish languages

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in J.R.R. Tolkien's
"Lord of the Rings" trilogy,

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especially since that was
the official grandfather

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of the fantasy conlangs.

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"Conlang" is short for
"constructed language."

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They're more than codes like Pig Latin,

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and they're not just collections
of fabricated slang like the Nadsat lingo

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that the teen hoodlums
in "A Clockwork Orange" speak,

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where "droog" from Russian
happens to mean "friend."

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What makes conlangs real languages
isn't the number of words they have.

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It helps, of course,
to have a lot of words.

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Dothraki has thousands of words.

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Na'vi started with 1,500 words.

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Fans on websites
have steadily created more.

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But we can see the difference
between vocabulary alone

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and what makes a real language

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from a look at how Tolkien
put together grand old Elvish,

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a conlang with several thousands words.

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After all, you could memorize
5,000 words of Russian

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and still be barely able
to construct a sentence.

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A four-year-old would talk
rings around you.

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That's because you have to know
how to put the words together.

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That is, a real language has grammar.

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Elvish does.

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In English, to make a verb past,
you add an "-ed."

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Wash, washed.

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In Elvish, "wash" is "allu"

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and "washed" is "allune."

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Real languages also change over time.

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There's no such thing as a language

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that's the same today
as it was a thousand years ago.

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As people speak, they drift
into new habits,

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shed old ones,

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make mistakes, and get creative.

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Today, one says,

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"Give us today our daily bread."

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In Old English, they said,

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"Urne gedaeghwamlican
hlaf syle us todaeg."

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Things change in conlangs, too.

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Tolkien charted out ancient
and newer versions of Elvish.

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When the first Elves awoke at Cuiviénen,

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in their new language,

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the word for "people" was "kwendi,"

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but in the language of one of the groups
that moved away, Teleri,

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over time, "kwendi" became "pendi,"

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with the "k" turning into a "p."

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And just like real languages,
conlangs like Elvish split off into many.

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When the Romans transplanted
Latin across Europe,

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French, Spanish, and Italian were born.

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When groups move to different places,

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over time, their ways
of speaking grow apart,

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just like everything else about them.

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Thus, Latin's word for hand was "manus,"

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but in French, it became "main,"

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while in Spain it became "mano."

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Tolkien made sure Elvish
did the same kind of thing.

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While that original word
"kwendi" became "pendi"

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among the Teleri,

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among the Avari, who spread
throughout Middle Earth,

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it became "kindi"
when the "w" dropped out.

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The Elvish varieties Tolkien
fleshed out the most

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are Quenya and Sindarin,

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and their words are different
in the same way French and Spanish are.

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Quenya has "suc" for "drink,"

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Sindarin has "sog."

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And as you know, real languages are messy.

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That's because they change,

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and change has a way
of working against order,

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just like in a living room
or on a bookshelf.

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Real languages are never
perfectly logical.

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That's why Tolkien made sure
that Elvish had plenty of exceptions.

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Lots of verbs are conjugated
in ways you just have to know.

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Take even the word "know."

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In the past, it's "knew,"

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which isn't explained
by any of the rules in English.

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Oh well.

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In Elvish, "know" is "ista,"

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but "knew" is "sinte."

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Oh well.

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The truth is, though, that Elvish
is more a sketch for a real language

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than a whole one.

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For Tolkien, Elvish was a hobby

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rather than an attempt to create something
people could actually speak.

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Much of the Elvish the characters
in the "Lord of the Rings" movies speak

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has been made up since Tolkien
by dedicated fans of Elvish

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based on guesses as to what Tolkien
would have constructed.

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That's the best we can do for Elvish
because there are no actual Elves around

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to speak it for us.

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But the modern conlangs go further.

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Dothraki, Na'vi, and Klingon
are developed enough

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that you can actually speak them.

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Here's a translation
of "Hamlet" into Klingon,

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although performing it
would mean getting used

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to pronouncing "k" with your uvula,

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that weird, cartoony thing hanging
in the back of your throat.

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Believe it or not, you actually do that
in plenty of languages around the world,

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like Eskimo ones.

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Pronouncing Elvish is much easier, though.

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So, let's take our leave for now

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from this introduction
to conlangs in Elvish

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and the other three conlangs discussed

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with a heartfelt
quad-conlangual valedictory:

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"A Na Marie!"

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"Hajas!"

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Na'vi's "Kiyevame!"

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"Qapla!"

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and "Goodbye!"