Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages? - John McWhorter
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/are-elvish-klingon-dothraki-and-na-vi-real-languages-john-mcwhorter What do Game of Thrones' Dothraki, Avatar's Na'vi, Star Trek's Klingon and LOTR's...
========== To many, one of the coolest things
about "Game of Thrones" is that the inhabitants
of the Dothraki Sea have their own real language. And Dothraki came hot on the heels of the real language
that the Na'vi speak in "Avatar," which, surely, the Na'vi needed when the Klingons in "Star Trek" have had
their own whole language since 1979. And let's not forget the Elvish languages in J.R.R. Tolkien's
"Lord of the Rings" trilogy, especially since that was
the official grandfather of the fantasy conlangs. "Conlang" is short for
"constructed language." They're more than codes like Pig Latin, and they're not just collections
of fabricated slang like the Nadsat lingo that the tee...