blog entry #5

Thesis statement :

Conlangs (constructed languages) are a very powerful tool used in worldbuilding, enabling creators to offer a much more in-depth and thoroughly united fictional universe, leading to a much more immersive viewing experience and to an ultimately more loyal and dedicated fanbase.

Topic Sentences :

  • When the creation of a fictional language takes place at the same time as the creation of the world it will inevitably exist in, both the resulting world and language play in each other's favors, rather than if one has to be built around a pre-existing other.

[REWORDED: The simultaneous creation of a fictional world and the language which will be used to represent it is favorable to an instance in which one has to be built around a pre-existing other.]

  • The immersion provided by the inclusion of fictional languages in media (books, movies, tv shows, video games) significantly enhances the quality of the experience, providing the audience with a much more detailed universe to lose themselves into.

  • The fan culture of media which have made use of fictional language tends to be more dedicated and better united under the common bond of language, along with the many other aspects which link a fandom community together*.

*I still am unsure whether or not I will mention those, if so, it will not take too much of my paragraph, it will be more of an "honorable mentions" type of explanation.

Annotated bibliography :

WIRED. "Accent Expert Breaks Down 6 Fictional Languages From Film & TV | WIRED." YouTube, commentary by Erik Singer, 11 April 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa6cHEJIjYI.


In this video, dialect coach Erik Singer analyzes 6 different conlangs, most of which will be mentioned in my essay, along with a couple honorable mentions. He really dives into the phonology of the conlangs, talking about tongue placement and relating certain choices from the makers to natlangs (natural languages) such as American English or others. This video is also one of the few sources I've been able to find which included J.K. Rowling's Parseltongue, which is a strictly oral conlang and thus has no written form, making it harder to analyze in a written paper.

This source will be useful to, once again, diversify my pool of conlangs, letting me include a new form (oral only) and examine the ones I've already mentioned from a more phonology-focused point of approach.