homkamiro

In another universe?

squiddy-ink-s

More for the AU…

o-craven-canto

Imagine a world where everybody from a very young age is taught the basics of phonology and syntax and encouraged to make their own personal conlang for their private thoughts,

and by the time they're teenagers it's so impenetrable and convoluted that trying to read someone else's personal notes is in the same position as the Japanese cryptographers trying to follow Navajo code-talkers,

and the most intimate thing you can possibly do with anyone is teach them your secret language

(and then people are scrambling to rewrite their conjugation tables so their exes can't read their stuff anymore)

opencharacters

Public Domain Conlangs

The concept of copyright and conlangs can be tricky but many, especially more modern ones do fall into copyrighted territory. Like im sure you can get away with your characters speaking klingon idk as a joke or in a throwaway line but if its an integral part of your story "oh heres aliens who speak klingon" id imagine Paramount wouldnt be too happy.

Klingon and Dothraki are also trademarks so thats a no go.

So what can you use? if you were so inclined?

Well older conlangs like Esperanto or Ido were made in the 1800s and are therefore fair game in fact one of the reasons Esperanto is among the most successful conlangs is because it could be freely adapted and changed over time.

Balaibalan, one of the earliest conlangs ever recorded which was made sometime between the 14th and 16th century. It was meant to be the word of god. If you wanna know more I recommend this video.

Enochian, created by John Dee in 1583. This one was made to be like angelic speech. Here's another video if you wanna learn about that one.

While not a conlang, I'd be remiss if I didnt mention Hildegard of Bingen, the german nun who lived from 1098 to 1179. She made an alternative alphabet which is called Lingua ignota. She's kind of the patron saint of conlangers, I love her.

Those things could fit right in your works and def can be used freely.

Conlanging is a fairly new thing in the grand scheme of things, historically it was often in connection to religion as you can see by the examples but from the 1800s onwards things like Esperanto came onto the scene then the works of Tolkien which inspired more and more and of course like many things exploded with the internet.

Today conlangs are quite common especially in tv shows and movies, often studios hire linguists to make a language for them like the aforementioned Klingon or Dothraki.

nadiajustbe

The "Sam held Frodo's hand but didn't kiss it" specification becomes way more funnier when you remember it's Frodo writing the book. It's Frodo Baggins wasting his paper and time and ink to mention that Sam didn't kiss his hand for some reason. He can't understand if he is vaguely mad, sad or confused about it, but he had to mention it. He had to specify. Why didn't Sam kiss his hand, really?