Artlangs

Artlangs, short for artistic languages, are constructed languages created primarily for aesthetic, literary, or world-building purposes rather than practical international communication. They form a subset of conlangs (constructed languages) and are distinguished by careful attention to phonetic color, cultural flavor, and narrative utility. While some conlangs aim for practicality or universality, artlangs emphasize atmosphere, texture, and plausible social contexts within fictional settings.

Many artlangs arise from fiction and media. J. R. R. Tolkien developed multiple Elvish languages, including Quenya and Sindarin, to enrich his Middle-earth legendarium. In film and television, languages such as Klingon (Star Trek), Na’vi (Avatar), and Dothraki and Valyrian (Game of Thrones) were created to give depth to imagined cultures. These languages are designed with distinct phonologies and grammars to reflect their speakers’ identities and histories, and they often inspire extensive fan study and literature.

Design and features commonly found in artlangs include unique phoneme inventories, writing systems, and grammatical patterns chosen to evoke a particular culture or historical period. Lexicon may mix elements borrowed from real languages to feel familiar or be entirely invented to sound exotic. Some artlangs have substantial textual corpora, including poetry and songs, while others exist mainly as world-building details within a broader media product.

Use and communities around artlangs are primarily in fiction, games, and fan-created works. They are studied by linguists and language enthusiasts who explore how language design supports character and culture. Enthusiasts share resources on wikis and forums, engage in language creation projects, and sometimes publish teaching materials or sample texts to illustrate the languages’ aesthetics and structure.