Fixing Hollywood's sci-fi problem: The science of alien languages

Disappointed by the alien languages you see in movies? I have good news! There is a new branch of linguistics—Xenolinguistics—dedicated to imagining what an alien language might actually look like!
In this video, I want to explore the weirdness of the forms an alien language could take, using what we know about human language, animal communication, biology, and cognition.

Big thanks to my friend Maxwell Domanchich for helping me out with this video!

A new handbook on xenolinguistics was just published!
Xenolinguistics: Towards a science of extraterrestrial language.

0:00 – Xenolinguistics
2:04 – How weird is Klingon?
3:38 – Universal grammar
5:33 – The languages of Tlön
7:02 – Language and number
8:20 – Gestural language
10:29 – Chemical signaling
12:09 – Color changing and bioluminescence
15:17 – Electro-communication
17:23 – Magnetoreception
18:46 – How to make an alien language
19:59 – The languages of Star Wars

Sources
Borges (1940). Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.
Catania (2019). The astonishing behavior of electric eels.
Clarke (1973). Rendezvous with Rama.
Crook Baddeley & Osorio (2002). Identifying the structure in cuttlefish visual signals.
Evans & Levinson (2009). The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science.
Golston (2018). φ-features in animal cognition.
Ligon & McGraw (2018). A chorus of color: hierarchical and graded information content of rapid color change signals in chameleons.
Hanlon & Messenger (1988). Adaptive coloration in young cuttlefish (sepia officinalis l.): The morphology and development of body patterns and their relation to behaviour.
Holmer (2013). Greetings Earthlings! On possible features of exolanguage.
Hopkins (1999). Design features for electric communication.
Hunter (1775). An account of the Gymnotus Electricus.
Jackson & Ratnieks (2006). Communication in ants.
Jeanson et al. (2003). Pheromone trail decay rates on different substrates in the Pharaoh’s ant, Monomorium pharaonis.
Jones & Conner (2019). The jamming avoidance response in echolocating bats.
Mouritsen & Ritz (2005). Magnetoreception and its use in bird navigation.
Musso et al. (2003). Broca’s Area and the language instinct.
Osvath (2013). Astrocognition: A cognitive zoology approach to potential universal principles of intelligence.
Palmer et al. (2006). Response of female cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Cephalopoda) to
mirrors and conspecifics: evidence for signaling in female cuttlefish.
Ross (2023). Modification as a universal property of intelligent communication.
Ross (2023). A linguistic perspective on the Drake equation.
Westby & Conselice (2020). The astrobiological Copernican weak and strong limits for intelligent life.
Williams et al. (2019). Dynamic pigmentary and structural coloration within cephalopod chromatophore organs.
Wiltschko & Wiltschko (2005). Magnetic orientation and magnetoreception in birds and other animals.

Clips:
Star Wars (1977)
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Avatar (2009)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Treasure Planet (2002)
Return of the Jedi (1983)

[cortexcarvalho]

There are few works of fiction that address language as a central theme. It would be helpful if it were more common. Seeing the language from a different perspective would be interesting and a welcome stimulus to study. When trying to group this theme I saw that it is in many places, but never in a central place.

[emilymiller]

yo this might be my favorite video you've done yet Ryan

you keep hitting them out of the park

[roccov]

Another terrifically well-written, researched, and produced video. Superb job Ryan! This channel -- and particularly this video's topic -- is right up my alley. And it should ultimately have 100s of thousands of subscribers. I hope to be part of that growth along the way. Thanks!

[cariyaputta]

Probably just like spoken vulgar Sanskrit. A highly inflected language with 8 declensions (nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, instrumental, and locative) to avoid loss of information in verbal transmission.

[JKTCGMV]

I’d love to see an analysis of what your diet and metabolism would need to be like to generate the energy required to power an antenna for routine communication

[ryangibson]

Love this. I used to write sci fi and fantasy as a teenager and have pages of notes full of (really simplistic) conlangs. If I ever got back into it I'd want to take into account all the possible weird and wonderful forms of articulation. There's just a balance to be had between communicating to the audience and being realistic which is often difficult to achieve.

[timelesssolutions]

After 4:45 you incorrectly state:
"ANOTHER THING WE'VE NEVER FOUND IN ANY LANGUAGE...
LANGUAGES CAN'T COUNT WORDS. WE DON'T KEEP TRACK OF WHICH WORD IS THE FOURTH OR FIFTH OR SIXTH IN A SEQUENCE..."
German always requires the first of a verb be in the 2nd spot and the rest of verb be at the end of a sentence.

[KushKiki]

I love learning about languages from this channel.

[HomoPretelateris]

Luminescence is a doable option. Visible light occupies 300 nanometers. If aliens have detectors distinguishing 10 nanometers, we can get 30 letters.
The emmitting fluorescence must be fast switching though

[misterx]

Hot damn, the production quality has skyrocketed

[danskiver]

I’ve actually developed a different language discipline to supplement our current language systems. It’s based on the theory that linear language is navigating a multidimensional space. By giving language a multidimensional structure and a few first principles language can be turned into a puzzle solving exercise.

[OliCaaFor]

Play Halo Reach, the Covenant talk theyr own languague. Dueing the development of the game they contacted linguists to create a realistic languague for the aliens...
So realistic that you know when they throw a grenade, ,, '''Bubuku'' ''Abubuku'' I was amazed when i realized that it was not random vocal sounds but an actual languague after a grenade blows after those words... even ''BUBUKU, IP¡¡'' Feels like... ''Grenade, take over''.
is like african languagues, latin and asian languagues mixed

[erndogee]

I have already tried this in a universe I have created. But it's nice to hear from someone else about it.

[jverart]

What an amazing video, I was really looking forward to this one! Glad to have you back. I have seen some articles about animal and plant languages and even their translation through AI and other technologies and I find it fascinating.
Whenever I ponder on the topic of the limits of the mind I always start through the possibility of creating a language of one. Perhaps I do it one day just for fun 😅 or perhaps it would be a way to visualise how my brain actually represents reality to itself? 🤔 Food for thought.

Can't wait for the next video. Cheers from France :)

[krystian]

If aliens speak by feromons, electric power or echolocation how they can write? They have alphabet, abjads, abugidas and syllabaries there same like we? Can we described it if we will text in their language? They can described text in human language?

[JKTCGMV]

I never knew the aliens were saying gibberish in Star Wars

[Cocoron]

I like to think of rodents and their range of vocalizations that are sometimes at a frequency we can't even hear without equipment. Imagine an alien race like that. Maybe a bunch of wheeking squeaking rat people

[HomoPretelateris]

I wonder how San-Ti language may sound like?

[krystian]

You forgot about pictures writing. I think writing inspired by egyptian, mayan, chinese and blissymbols and others like this is best way to talking with aliens. Pictures, ,gravity" or, ,talking" should easy to understand in all space. Grammar and syntax should be enough complicated to write anything strictly and correctly and enough simple to understand for everybody aliens. They also must have their own pictures writing so it should universal concept

[SergioGonzalez-vvll]

Really good! What a piece of nice work. Greetings from Colombia!