The Weird History of Invented Languages | Otherwords

Can you really invent a language? These people sure tried! But does anyone actually speak them?

Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and fınds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fıelds of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human.

Host: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
Creator/Director: Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
Writer: Andrew Matthews
Producer: Katie Graham
Editor/Animation: Andrew Matthews
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy

Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

Stock Images from Shutterstock
Music from APM Music
Otherwords is produced by Spotzen for PBS.
© 2023 PBS. All rights reserved.

[adpirtle]

Tolkien called constructing languages his "secret vice." I think he'd be amazed by all the conlangs in popular media today.

[brucearthur]

I'm a conlanger and this is probably the most accurate video ever made about our hobby by a YouTube channel that isn't dedicated to conlanging. Congrats!

[neoshenlong]

"Words are the shadows in Plato's cave"

Absolutely love it. I'm using that quote forever.

[voltijuice]

I remember as a kid, looking up "Esperanto" in an dictionary. My mind was blown that it was described as (IIRC) a "man-made language", which got me wondering where everyone thought that the other older languages had come from!

[blue_champignon]

Another fun conlang is toki pona which was invented in the early 2000s and attempted to make the simplest and easy to learn universal language out there

[hatezis]

If you apply for a job at the UN, there is a drop down menu where you can select your language skills, and you can choose klingon

[aledelgaraje]

Just want to say that I love Otherwords, it might easily be on my top 3 favorite youtube shows.

[paulholleger]

When she says "we've only scratched the surface", she's definitely understating it. There's a whole universe you can get lost in. Literally, there are books written on the subject, books written with conlangs in them, books written IN conlangs... it can get nuts.

There's even joke languages, like kay(f)bop(t), which has phonemic hats! If you think that sounds like nonsense, you're right! lol.

I'm glad she covered the major subsets of conlangs though: artlang, auxlang, and engineered (though some would still call that aux.). Though I did think she was going to give a brief mention of Ithkuil when she mentioned engineered conlangs, I think keeping it to loglan/lojban was the right call.

For those looking to learn an artlang, the languages in LotR are probably the most fleshed out. For those looking to learn an auxlang, Esperanto will get you a lot of mileage, and Toki Pona will be easiest to pick up.

[landonhudson]

Saying that language nerds don't get language nerdier than conlang nerds is entirely accurate. I have learned so much about linguistics from conlang YouTubers it's ridiculous.

While the way we view language is certainly no small part of what makes conlangs interesting, I find it more interesting how it gives the ability to play and experiment with language. We can create them and explore linguistics as an art form and a science at the same time, which is just a fascinating concept.

[BobLHedd]

The illustration of the friendly neighbor Klingon is the clear winner of this episode.

[davidbarton]

Can I suggest you do a video about controlled natural languages?

Their use can be benign (enabling people to communicate in a simplified third language with minimal study, e.g. Basic English ) or terrifying (restricting a natural language to a prescribed set of words to make it impossible to express dissent, e.g. Newspeak).

It might make an interesting companion video to your conlang one.

[JeffRobbins]

I took one linguistics course in college, and the professor mentioned that she was one of the creators of Pakuni. This was the language spoken by Cha-Ka and his people on the show Land of the Lost. The show creators had hired a few people to create a whole language for their silly show. As I recall, the professor was pretty proud of it.

[JobvanderZwan]

Funny enough, in Dutch "zamen" means "together, and "hof" can mean either "court", "courtyard" or "garden". So in Dutch at least Zamenhof sort of means "court of togetherness", which fits his ambitions. I wonder if the (presumably) Yiddish roots of the surname have a similar meaning.

[Gilleban]

I'm oddly proud that I worked on a movie that actually used Esperanto as a written language...in the movie Blade: Trinity (yes, the lame vampire movie, to be "vague" about where the movie was taking place and give it a "European" flair (even though it was filmed in Vancouver and made many references to the FBI and other Americanisms), the film company decided to make many building signs legible in English and Esperanto. To really drive this home there is a scene where Ryan Reyolds' character "Hannibal King" is bedridden because of an injury and is watching the movie "The Incubus"...a movie famous for both starring William Shatner and being the first feature film in the Esperanto language.

[MartyMango]

As a Conlanger myself, I was so psyched to see this video go up! Now I have a really good intro to link people to when they're confused & baffled by my hobby!

[jessetorres]

1 of my personal favorite fictional languages is Trigedasleng (shortened to Trig) from The 100, which in the show was originally a combination of English & Latin but changed over a century to the language the various clans used throughout the series.

[paulholleger]

It would be cool to do a video on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and talk about both it's supporters and skeptics. Many people hear about it and are tantalized by the implications, but I think carry it too far (e.g. in Arrival) without knowing it's history and actual claims. It might also be a good to close with modern linguists that are still working on testing it out (Daniel Everett comes to mind, if a bit of a controversial figure himself).

[stuartwhyte]

Another good book on Conlangs is "From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages" by Michael Adams. It almost reads like a doctoral thesis, which is to say kind of dry at some points, but it has a lot of good information on the nuances of Klingon, Sindarin, Newspeak, 1337 speak, and others. The book is about 12 years old, so some newer artlangs and things won't get touched on in there. Still a good primer.

[youremakingprogress]

This is a perfect subject for an Otherwords video, and the team did a terrific job of it. I really enjoy this series!

[TrueSchwar]

My favorite type of conlang are hypothetical conlangs (like what if the Romans never left Britain, and a British Romance language developed).