Have you ever tried to learn a Conlang? (Ancient Post)

[mareebaybay]

I have never tried learning a fictional language. Mainly because I never knew there was a such thing as fictional languages. Now that I am aware of these kind of languages, it increases my interest in languages greatly.

[SpiralArchitect]

Elvish and even the language of Ents from Lord of the Rings interested me a lot as a kid. But as someone who struggles with learning actual language, the idea of learning a fictional one never crossed my mind. It would be pretty cool to be able to speak a fictional language though.

[rgaz83]

I have dabbled in a couple fictional languages. I even still have a Klingon language CD! But I have never known more than a few vocabulary words; never progressed to anything like grammar.

[polybus]

I have never tried to learn a fictional language before. It is not because I think it would be a waste of time. There are many things that I do in a day that others would consider a waste of time. In fact I am sure that a lot of people I know would consider studying "real" languages a waste of time.

I think that I have never tried to learn a fictional language because I am just not enough of a fan of a show or book that has the language in it. I think it is pretty cool that fully functioning languages were created for Klingon or Elvish, but personally I am not going to learn them.

[azathoth]

I tried to learn R'lyehian from the Lovecraftian mythos.  Since there isn't actually much information on it, it... didn't quite work out.  It still was fun to try, though!

[viciosomundial]

No. What's the use of learning this new language if most won't be able to communicate with you? I mean, instead of a fictional language maybe learn a real one that will help you in life? One which can help you in business, flirting...communicating in general! Why would you want to speak the dragon's tounge? Screaming Fus Ro Dah wo---

*computer and desktop flyes away into the wal, connection terminated*

[Guest isabbbela]

Well I don't know if that counts, but when I was a kid me and my best friend decided to learn to speak the words backwards so that nobody could understand what we said. We actually got pretty good at it until we got tired of it.

[Joe D.]

While I admire the effort and skill that had to go into creating a genuine fictional language, it seems utterly pointless to me, a form of mental masturbation. I have never even considered learning one (okay, other than pig-latin  , which at least, others can play at, too). And honestly, I find it a little weird when others are fascinated by them.

[Hardison]

Even though I'm a big Star Trek fan, I never tried to learn Klingon. I know a few words, but that's because I heard them used several times on TV show. I had an ex-boyfriend who spoke Klingon fluently. He and his friend drove me nuts when they spoke Klingon in my presence.

Qapla

[moorecoby]

Definitely not, it serves no purpose to me and really society, its a waste of time to me.

[Buckeye]

I think Klingon sounds really cool but there aren't many speakers. A big part of learning a language, to me, is being able to communicate with others. While I would find it beneficial to learn to read an ancient language to gain access to certain original texts, despite not being able to speak with other people, learning Klingon wouldn't have the same benefit. Whenever I come across a speaker, I admire their dedication to learn the language.

[justusforus]

I now have to go and look for the Klingon and Avatar languages.  My first reaction when I saw the thread was "pig latin" so I am glad someone brought it up.  I think it was never meant to be a language but often used t try and say something the idskay (kids) would not understand.

Interesting, even though I am not a Trekkie, I think it would be fun to hear a whole group speaking it, like at a convention. 

[justusforus]

Within a day of seeing this thread and responding, I saw an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" where Sheldon said something to some guys at another booth.  One of them asked "Did he just ask..in Klingon"?...I had to burst out laughing, since I said I had not heard Klingon and would have to look up some old episodes.

[Hardison]

Within a day of seeing this thread and responding, I saw an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" where Sheldon said something to some guys at another booth.  One of them asked "Did he just ask..in Klingon"?...I had to burst out laughing, since I said I had not heard Klingon and would have to look up some old episodes.

There are a number of episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" where they speak Klingon. In one episode, the guys were playing a Klingon game. I just love that show!

[FartoTheWise]

Totally tried learning elvish when I was younger. Didn't work out so well.

[thekernel]

I tried to make my own but I didn't get very far. Pig Latin was a pretty easy language to learn, once you get the hang of it 

[Pink Glitter]

When I was in middle school the students were speaking some made language called OBB. Everyone thought it was really cool to  be able to talked in front of the teachers, and not be understood. I never bothered to learn , it was a short lived fad ,and everyone soon lost interest in a couple of months.

[kniera]

I haven't but I can see people with to much time on their hands just doing this because they are bored, but apart from that it has almost no use.

[writeletters]

I wouldn't want to learn a language unless there were other people I could communicate with using it. I'm sure I would learn one if I could also convince some of my friends to learn it with me.

[Katya S]

It would be quite fun to learn a fictional language, but only if you knew other people who could speak it to. Otherwise it might be a bit sad to have this skill that you have but can't use... I haven't ever tried to learn a fictional language, but I would if I found one which was interesting and if I could get at least one of my friends to learn it to, especially since I find it easier to learn languages with other people around

[Baburra]

I never plan to, but I've always found it fascinating to see first off, that it is indeed possible to create your own language, and secondly, that people actually learn it. I watched a documentary about Trekkies (Star Trek fans), and saw a lot of them totally immersing themselves in the culture by having themed weddings and even using Klingon as the language used. I personally would prefer to learn other "real world" languages, but I'm glad that this level of creativity not only exists, but is also being supported.

[diprod]

So there are a couple of well developed fictional languages out there, I think the two most famous ones would be Klingon from Star Trek and the Elvish langue from Lord of the Rings. I'm personally quite a big Star Trek fan and a keen linguist so I tried my hand at Klingon but I found it rather difficult to learn. Marc Orkrand the man that created the language specifically said that he wanted to create a unique language so he took the most difficult rules from all kinds of languages and mashed them together. The language is definitely speakable, I know a lady that likes to translate poems into Klingon, but for me it's more of a hobby or novelty rather than anything serious.

Did anyone else here every try their hand at fictional languages? If so, how did it go?

I knew this is going to be about Klingon! haha But no, I didn't try to learn it. I was intrigued though. I would to learn the language of the elves in Lord of the Rings!

[Preya_M]

I've never tried learning a fictional language but I'm sure that if you watch something for a great amount of time, then it will automatically grow on you. Just like watching/reading anything in another language, you eventually pick up on some things. Though, I don't think that I would try learning some in the future.

[MyDigitalpoint]

I have tried to invent a fictional language, but despite I know about some fictional languages that some people use, I have not tried to learn them and only once to speak one of them using in a TV commercial when i was child.

Can't remember too much details about it though.

[JoanMcWench]

Learning a fictional language seems like a ton of work for very little reward. I am trying to see how it could possibly benefit me other than delighting me when I put it on a resume? I would much rather try to master non-fiction languages before I would even consider attempting the fiction.