From TV shows to films and books, made-up languages make a story more convincing. And, believe it or not, they are not just gibberish. In fact, many of them were made by linguists and are so complex that they have their own grammar and syntax. In this article, you’ll discover how some of the popular made-up languages came to be, as well as a few phrases and words that you can even try out yourself.
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Klingon From Star Trek
Star Trek’s Klingon was created by linguist Marc Okrand, and it has expanded from a handful of guttural phrases into a full language with its own grammar and syntax! It’s so complex that it has over 5,000 words and the pronunciation changes with uppercase vs. lowercase letters—a “q” differs from a “Q.” There is even a strict Object‑Verb‑Subject structure.
Sample phrase: “taH pagh, taHbe'” means “to continue or not continue [living],” mirroring English’s famed “to be or not to be”
Fun Fact: Want to immerse yourself in this fictional language? There is a Klingo Language Institute and several books about it.
Dothraki From Game of Thrones
Believe it or not, linguist David Peterson built Dothraki language by expanding only a few tribal words from George R.R. Martin’s novels. Now? It has 4,000 words.
So, what makes Dothraki distinct? Well, its grammar mirrors warrior culture with inflected verbs, animate/ inanimate noun classes, and five noun cases, all in a direct Subject‑Verb‑Object order.
A fun tidbit: When The Office’s Dwight Schrute used Dothraki’s object‑first construction (“throat rip”), Peterson adopted it as the “Schrutean compound” in the official language. Sample phrase: “Yer shekh ma shieraki anni” means “You are my sun and stars.”
High Valyrian From Game of Thrones
David J. Petereson is also the man behind GoT’s High Valyrian language. And, as you might already know, it is not as rugged as Dothraki. Nevertheless, it’s equally impressive because, again, he expanded the language from a couple of phrases valar morghulis (“All men must die”) and valar dohaeris (“All men must serve”).
What’s even more impressive is that High Valyrian has four grammatical numbers, eight noun cases, and four “genders” (including lunar, solar, terrestrial, and aquatic classes).
Fun Fact: There is a High Valyrian course in Duolingo.
Quenya and Sindarin From the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit
Tolkien started developing Quenya in the 1910s, which he based heavily on Finnish. This made-up language is mostly reserved for songs, ceremonies, and inscriptions. A classic phrase you’ll hear in The Lord of the Rings is “Á na márië”, which translates to “Be well.”
Unlike Quenya, which sounds like it belongs in a glowing elven temple, Sindarin is the language of day-to-day elf chatter. Tolkien modeled it on Welsh, and you can totally hear the influence in its soft, breathy tones.
Here’s the cool part: Sindarin is actually the most spoken Elvish dialect in Middle-earth, especially by elves who live in places like Lothlórien or Rivendell.
According to Tolkien himself, the elves switched to Sindarin over time because it felt more natural and expressive. One common phrase is “Le nathlam hí,” meaning “You are welcome here.”
Na’vi From Avatar
James Cameron tapped linguist Paul Frommer to invent the Na’vi language in Avatar.
What makes Na’vi stand out is that it uses English letters but throws in fun twists like ejective consonants (px, tx, kx) and glottal stops (the apostrophe you see in words like fì’uyu). Today, the language has over 2,600 official words. One of the most iconic phrases? “Oel ngati kameie”, which means “I see you”, a phrase like “I see your soul.”
Fun Fact: Over 1.2 million people have dabbled in learning the Na’vi language, and there’s even a thriving community teaching full courses.
Esperanto
Esperanto was created in 1887 by Ludwik Zamenhof, a Polish doctor who dreamed of a simple, neutral language that anyone could learn to break down communication barriers. It has no weird grammar twists, and you pronounce every letter the way it’s written.
Unlike the flashy, made-up languages featured in movies and shows, Esperanto exists in the real world, with a community of up to two million speakers worldwide.
Lapine From Watership Down
Lapine is the soft, earthy language of rabbits, crafted not by a linguist, but by author Richard Adams.
He didn’t build it all at once, either. In a Reddit AMA, he admitted, “I just constructed Lapine as I went—when the rabbits needed a word for something, so did I.” That’s how we got words like hrududu (a motor vehicle) and tharn (frozen in fear), both of which feel oddly perfect when you read them in context.
The vocabulary stays tight: mostly names, nature words, and rabbit concepts like silflay (grazing above ground) and hrair (literally “a thousand,” but also anything more than four, because rabbits don’t count that high).
Alienese From Futurama
Alienese is the secret alien alphabet you’ll spot hidden throughout Futurama. But did you know that it started as a simple substitution cipher in the pilot episode, and fans cracked it almost immediately? Today, language has evolved into a more complex set of symbols mixing phonetics and visuals, making it a fun puzzle for diehard viewers.
