8 Languages Created For Film & TV (And Why They Were Made)
The beauty of fantasy and sci-fi lies in their power to fully immerse us in worlds where anything is possible. From sweeping landscapes to lavish costumes, building a believable world takes imagination, patience, and attention to detail. One of the most powerful tools for world-building is language—the element that gives culture its voice.
Over the past two decades, the creation of languages (or “conlangs”) has become increasingly common in film and television. These languages add a deeper layer of authenticity, giving fans a way to connect with these fictional worlds long after the credits roll.
After Dune hit theatres, who didn’t jokingly call their cat “Muad’Dib”? And after Game of Thrones, how many hundreds of babies were named Khaleesi? The rise of conlangs has created new work for a small but growing group of linguists, as filmmakers strive for that extra level of immersion. Here are eight languages created specifically for the screen, and the stories behind them.
1. Dothraki in Game of Thrones
One of the best-known conlangs is Dothraki from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Although snippets were created on paper by author George R.R. Martin for his Song of Ice and Fire novels, the spoken language was crafted and amplified for the screen by linguist David J. Peterson.
Before Game of Thrones, it was extremely rare for a television production to develop an entire fictional language for a show. However, possibly inspired by the success of The Lord of the Rings, creators Benioff and Weiss wanted Westeros to feel completely real—and language became a key component in creating that expansive world. Would Daenerys’ journey to becoming the leader of the Dothraki have felt so monumental and hard-won without her having to master their language? I doubt it.
2. Elvish in The Lord of the Rings
Where fictional languages are concerned, there is arguably no greater master than J.R.R. Tolkien. Both a fantasy writer and philologist, Tolkien dedicated much of his life to creating the languages featured in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even called his passion for creating languages a "secret vice". In a letter, Tolkien wrote that “the 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse”. What a nerd, and I love him all the more for it!
When director Peter Jackson embarked on his mission to bring LOTR to the big screen, he enlisted the help of linguist David Salo in sounding out both Elvish (including the colloquial Sindarin and the more formal Quenya), as well as Dwarvish and Orcish. Although Salo had the luxury of falling back on Tolkien’s ample body of work—which included the whole alphabet and extensive linguistic history—adapting these ancient tongues for modern audiences and cinematic dialogue was still a monumental task.
3. Naʼvi in Avatar
Director James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster Avatar introduced us to one of cinema’s most distinctive conlangs: Na’vi. Paul Frommer was the linguist tasked with creating the language of the Na’vi people and shaping it to be both a comprehensive tongue that balanced “complexity and accessibility” while reflecting the people’s culture.
Designed with a mix of rolling sounds and one-syllable words to rhythmically run parallel to patterns found in English, Na’vi was meant to be easy on the ears while not mimicking any one human language in particular. The result was a language that made Pandora feel like a living, breathing world with an ancient history.
4. Fremen in Dune: Part Two
Linguist David J Peterson and his wife Jessie Peterson were already well known in the world of conlang creation from David’s previous work on Game of Thrones’ Dothraki language. In Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune book series, the Petersons took the words off the page and transformed them for the big screen. Although Dune: Part One featured some Fremen, Part Two is where the language becomes fully expanded.
In Dune, Chakobsa is the language of the sand-bound native people of the planet Arrakis. Since Frank Herbert’s entire Dune series draws many parallels between the West and Middle Eastern societies and their modern conflicts, it makes sense that the language of the people of Arrakis (Iraq, anyone?) would share some strong similarities with Arabic. For example, “Muad’Dib” (Paul’s Fremen name meaning “desert mouse”) is similar to the Arabic word “mu'addib”, meaning “teacher”. Coupled with the immersive sound design and desert aesthetic, the Fremen language makes the planet of Arrakis feel strikingly grounded.
5. Huttese in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Sound designer Ben Burtt and linguist Larry Ward created Huttese for the Star Wars universe, and it was first widely spoken in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. The language was largely inspired by Quechua, an Indigenous language of the Andes, a variation of which is still spoken by millions today.
Huttese is one of the common trade languages spoken in a galaxy far, far away, spoken not only by Jabba the Hutt and his kin but also by smugglers like Han Solo. Its widespread use helped make the Star Wars galaxy feel linguistically diverse and culturally layered.
6. Klingon in Star Trek
Klingon remains one of the most famous conlangs ever created. Developed for the Star Trek television series back in the late 1960s by linguist Dr Marc Okrand for the Klingon race (the ones with the intensely ridged foreheads), the language—in addition to the series itself—became a cultural phenomenon, with Trekkies around the globe learning Klingon, going to Klingon conventions, and even creating the official Klingon Language Institute in 1992.
It’s hard to downplay the impact of Klingon, the success of which likely paved the way for all of the other conlangs on this list. Beyond its complex grammar and guttural sound, Klingon has also entered mainstream nerd culture, with many films and TV series like The Big Bang Theory referencing it as the ultimate fictional language and using it as a kind of litmus test of legitimacy.
7. Shiväisith in Thor: The Dark World
Linguist and conlang creator extraordinaire David J Peterson once again worked his magic for another blockbuster production—this time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He created Shiväisith, the language of the Dark Elves, in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World.
As the names of the Dark Elves in the comics have a distinctly Nordic flair, Peterson based Shiväisith on Finnic linguistic patterns. The result is a soft, lilting sound similar to Finnish, which perfectly matches the eerie elegance of the Dark Elves.
8. Trigedasleng in The 100
For The CW’s series The 100, David J Peterson once again lent his skills to the creation of the Grounders’ language, Trigedasleng. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the language evolved from American English over several generations, focused primarily on survival over formal education.
In making Trigedasleng, Peterson tried to portray a realistic expectation of the evolution of American English. The result is a language that is mostly unintelligible, but upon closer inspection can be seen as an amalgamation of English words spoken in a lazy, mish-mash fashion.
