Tolkien was a Philology (Linguistics and its historical and cultural context) professor at Oxford. He knew what he was doing.

"Elvish was more of a hobby for Tolkien, so he didn't really finish it." It should also be noted that he was a little busy creating a separate language for the Rohirrim, one for the dwarves, and a bit of vocabulary for Gondor and Mordor, too. Not to mention whatever language it is that the Valar speak, though again there are only a few words of that, and only in the Silmarillion. So, not being immortal himself, he was probably a little busy to fully create a language.

Speaking Navi? You mean like "Hey, Listen!" or "Watch out!" or "Look!"

Are you telling me that Avatar had enough fans to develop a Na'vi conlang? Did people really get sucked into that movie?

I enjoy these videos, but I must object to the placement of a penguin at the North Pole.

Not gonna lie, i learned Elvish, well Sindarin in high school to impress a girl, it ended in true high school disaster, but from that single act i discovered a love of languages. I now can speak 5 languages not counting my basic Sindarin, a bit of conversational Mandalorian and my first language of English.

Tolkien was insane! Man, I have problems to create good names to my characters, cities and kingdoms, and he just created a fucking language with its variations! God damn it!

when you think about it it just shows you just how amazing Tolkien was as an author. his works are still selling around the world. i mean LotR is over 50 years old and The hobbit I nearly 80 and new ones are still coming out. he really did lay the foundations for all modern fantasy worlds and languages.

About the Na'vi language, In the movie "Avatar" Each cast member had to audition in the Na'vi language. That is why they speak it so fluently. They learned the language given to them by a linguist who helped create the language.

Interesting point: the counter-intuitional changing of kw- into p- in some Elvish dialects is historical fact; Tolkien must have taken this development from the Celtic languages, which are still divided into P-Celtic (Welsh, Breton, Cornish) and Q-Celtic (Gaelic, Irish, Manx). (I know nothing about Tolkien, but I'm up on my British linguistics.)

Great, now I feel like learning a fictional language at 1:00AM. Gee, thanks a lot!

Welp, I thought Na'vi would be "Listen! Hey!" when I saw this video.

Why no one care about valyrian?

To be fair, Old English is not just an older version of our English. It had a massive infusion of French, as well as some other stuff.

1:50 Actually, Chinese and Icelandic have stayed pretty consistent over incredible periods of time. Such things are pretty rare, though; not necessary for a language, but it’s a bonus for believable history.

I started constructing a new language for a novel I'm fleshing out. I love languages.

The fact that Avatar came out like 7 years ago but there's already a whole language surrounding it is shocking

Just noting that you labeled the entire Iberian peninsula as Spanish, completely ignoring the existence of Portuguese…

Penguins and Eskimos don't live together. In fact, Eskimos live further away from penguins than the rest of America

Rohirric, Dalish, and Taliska are more real because they're based off of Old English, Old Norse and Gothic. Hail Tolkien!

And that is why Tolkien was a genius. Not to mention he was a univeristy linguistics professor so he knew what he was doing.

I love Tolkien, his books sparkled my interest for linguistics.

Elvish clearly takes the cake here

Valar morghulis.

Haha, he said Elvish (or Quenya, in this case) was the easiest to pronounce... yet he pronounced "Namárië" incorrectly-- rolling the 'r' is a must in both Quenya and Sindarin... Not only that, but I'm quite certain that "Á na márië" is incorrect. "Namárië" (which is Quenya) is a shortened form of "na márië," from na + márië, literally meaning "to goodness." Since "Á" means 'to' and 'na' means 'to be,' it would literally mean, "to to be good(ness)." A bit repetitive, but I think the elves would get the idea :) Ah, well. At least he tried :D

I've seen entire Facebook conversations of 30+ comments constructed entirely of memes. If you can use it to communicate - it's a language! :)

And this is why Skyrim's dragon language is shit. Just a bunch of words, no grammar.

*Inuit not Eskimo (languages, eh?)

i think having an alphabet is important. grammar rules for word types works as well. this way people can create new words without needing to guess.

Miraabilmir conlang'i eyjta! (Colangs are wonderful!) I've been constructing a world with a conlang loosely based on Latin, split into several dialects across a continent. Deriving it from Latin, a language I've studied, is much easier than creating a whole knew language group, but it still requires a lot of head-scratching, particularly where grammar is concerned. It's been fun to create new words and phrases, though, and to make it suit the culture. Translating an entire paragraph of text into a new language you came up with and then reading it aloud is a very satisfying experience.

Very beautiful, very interesting, very educational, and very well animated video! Thank you so much for sharing this! All the best, take care, stay safe, keep up the good work, and many blessings!

Esperanto has completely consistent grammar rules, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has found that it fulfills all of the requirements for being a living language. Under the conditions of this video, though, Esperanto wouldn't be a "real" language.

Many conlangs are often just English with a different coat of paint. It makes sense, as most of the people writing con langs for hollywood productions speak Enlgish first, and make subtitles easy to translate.

4:47 Eskimos and penguins will never meet because there are no penguins in the far north :-)

I want to learn more about elvish! :(

Á na márië is like "Do far well" It should be Namarië.

First of all i'm sorry for my bad English, second, loved the clip, very insightful, i didn't had a clue that these languages, especially Elvish, were so developed, that's awesome! And third, and i'm sorry for this one, you forgot about a fourth country that has a latin derived language, Portugal. In the clip you show a map of western Europe, and i'm sorry to say that Spain isn´t that big. On the western coast of Europe lies a very tiny country named Portugal, and in Portugal we speak Portuguese, the other latin derived language. Sorry for this correction. And again nice clip, very, very interesting!

Esperanto is definitely considered a conlang. Unlike Klingon, Na'Vi, and Quenya, which are often included in the "artlang" (artistic language) subgroup, Esperanto was actually intended for real use as a worldwide second language, one that would be politically neutral. This makes it part of the so-called "auxlang" subgroup (auxiliary language).

Now I learned how to make a language for my book, you guys are really useful, thank you a lot!

Great video. Very informative.

I love the idea that Elvish could be a real language. I write books in the realms of fantasy and this really appeals to me.

As someone who barely qualifies as bilingual, I massively respect Tolkien for the work he did in creating Elvish. Language is probably one of the most difficult subjects in the world, whether you're learning to read, write, speak or create a whole new one.

I got into Star Trek only recently and have also become interested in actually attempting to learn con-langs starting with Klingon.

To my knowledge, Qa'pla isn't "Goodbye", it's more of a "Good luck". Though it is used rather flexibly.

I remember having a conversation with my brother in Gaeilge ( the Irish language) in Spain on our holidays and we were approached by French and American people who asked us were we speaking Elvish. Let's just say we were not happy but looking back on it I get a good laugh out of it

2:03 Now:Give us today our daily bread... Before:Urne gedeaghwamlican hlaf syle us todaeg. What happened?

If y'all wanna know how to do this kinda stuff (assuming you don't already), I would suggest Biblaridion's series on conlanging. Also, the website Vulgarlang is fun to play with, and will actually construct a language for you if you don't want to go through the process of doing it yourself (although, personally, I could use some more hobbies). Not a spokesperson, but definitely a fan. Anyway, I absolutely love this kind of stuff. Languages are so interesting! One thing he didn't mention, though, is how the culture of the fantasy people can influence slang and metaphors, which is one of the extra layers of fun and complexity that intrigues me.

When a writter constructs so deeply 2 languages as the Quenya and Sindarin .... i think its a bit diferent!!! very nice video!! loved it!!!!!! allthough the Tone in Elvish is different than u are saying , this video and many others are so great!!!! Great Job u all!!!!!

I once attended an awesome interview at my university where they invited the creators of Klingon and Navi to give a talk: how they designed their fictional languages, influences, how the actors must learn this new made-up language, etc... ...sadly there’s a 3rd language at that interview, but I can’t remember what it was

skyrim also has conlang potential,not one but many

Wow! Neat video! Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed it. :D

Thanks for this upload. Very informative and very interesting. For the German audience: there is even a published work about Elvish grammar in comparison to German grammar: "Wie kann Deutsch und Elbisch kontrastiv verglichen werden? Tolkiens Versuch der Entwicklung einer Kunstsprache."

I was 8 years old when the first LOTR movie came out, I couldn't understand much, but when I watched it back in HS, I fell in love with it, It blew my mind how the writer actually made up a language! that's crazy!

And in Romanian the word for hand became "mana"... Why you guys always forget Romanian language is a Latin Language?

This was very informative :D

OMG John McWhorter, love this guy! Look him up on The Great Courses, great stuff!

French, spanish, italian, portuguese, and romanian. Thanks

If I can have a philosophical debate with the language, it is language enough for me.

I wish TED-talks would go deeper into the conlang scene some time. This was really fun!

What an insightful video.

Tolkien for Life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: **sees elvish in title** Also me: *y* E *s*

กลับมาดูแล้ว ขอบคุณสำหรับซับไทย Thank for Thai subtitle!

Love the intro, it is so classic

That was the wimpiest qapla' I've ever heard. Even the doctor says it with more feeling. :P

Rosetta Stone should make Na'vi, Elvish, Klingon, Huttese, Tamaranian,& more other Star Wars languages. I bet alot of people would love to buy that.

幸好有字幕的翻译，thank you😊

1:30 that's why I hate those language apps that teach you words and some sentences, but never mention grammar

I'm currently studying Sindarin as part of a linguist study. Tolkein was damn brilliant! Adding rules for genitives, indefinite and definite pronouns... Bruh, this was next level! I'm almost tempted to learn it ahah

gotta love Tolkien! I never knew he diversified the elvish tribe languages so much

Very interesting :) Though im surprised you didnt mention Esperanto, the original (and most wide spread)ConLang. :)

Dothraki only has like 400 words...I would barely call that a paragraph, let alone a language.

It reminded me Sheldon trying to give a speech at Howard and Bernadatte's wedding in Klingon. 😅😅😅😅😅

I do agree on the grammar part, but I don’t think varying in time and space is important in the same way. It is true that real languages vary due to the realities of people speaking as they wish to, but while you can’t imagine a language without grammar, you can make one without variation. In fact, there are some real languages that get pretty close; Icelandic and Chinese, for some, have barely changed at all over hundreds and thousands of years. Much the same can be said about irregularity; granted, it only really approaches reality in the most pedantic of conlangs like Ithkuil and Lojban, but it is not an inherent or definitional part of languages the way grammar is.

AMAZING CHANNEL!!!!!

I'm REALLY disappointed that Defiance was cancelled - I was looking forward to Castithan becoming a full-fledged conlang like those mentioned in this vid'. It just sounded SO cool when spoken...

The search for an informative Ted EX video continues.

When I saw the title first I thought Elvish was a language of Elvis ;P

Hay ! Txantsana rel arusikx, oe peng ! (sunu oer ayrel ngey! ) Ngaru tsulfä nang, ma TED-ed ;) Ta Xelloss, Kraryu leFranse ;) ---- Hey ! Awesome video, i say ! (I love your pictures!) You're a master, TED-ed ;) Xelloss, French teacher (of Na'vi XD )

really interesting video, just shows how much thought and love Tolkien put into his world and languages, he really knew his stuff!

The Tengwar spelling hurt.

Nice vid, but I'm a bit sad there's no talk about the real languages which inspired these fictional ones. For instance, Finnish and Welsh were languages Tolkien was fascinated by and created Quenyan and Sindarian from them. Na'vi was inspired by dozens of different tribal languages in Asia and South America. Anyone know what real languages inspired Klingon and Dothraki?

gracias por los Subs en español,sigan asi, es un Buen Canal Ya que no muchos tienen un ingles Fluido En Habla Hispana

The teachers showed us this video on school! I became proud over myself because I knew much of this before!

Ted-Ed: “there’s no such thing as a language that’s the same today, as it was a thousands years ago” *•-•• •- ••- --• •••• ••• •• -• -- --- •-• ••• • -•-• --- -•• •* (congrats to you, if you understand it)

There is no thank you in dothraki.

@3:50 Know does follow a grammar rule. The same rule applies to throw, and blow. there are just 2 rules for words ending in ow. For example glow follows a different set becoming glowed instead of glew. If you need words that don't follow you're thinking too hard. The most used words are the ones that change and stop following the rules. The verb "To Be" is a good one: I am, He is They/you are. I was. Also "to have", and "go" are words that have unique conjugations.

Right. I was just trying to say that know isn't nearly as good of an example of an exception to grammar as Be, Have, or Go, since it still follows a set of conjugation rules, whereas the verbs I mentioned truly are exceptions. But I did get the point that he was making about conlangs needing exceptions.

Wait..why is the title in german? Is this a bug?

2:06 In Old England the baby is missing because of the Plague?

What I'm most impressed with is that the producer(s) of this movie actually got everything in Tolkien's world and languages right. I think that we have a Tolkien fan for a lesson writer, or at least someone who did his research!

This channel uses some REALLY GOOD translating program> I've never seen anything like this. But It''s possible to see that's a program.

How about the dragon language in skyrim?

How does esperanto fit into this? Or, more generally, how do languages created specifically created to be easy to learn and have as little grammar as possible and with no exceptions fit into this? I mean, it's not like they're not real languages... aren't they?

Thank you John, nice.

Man, do I love languages! :D They fascinate me so much! I love Klingon but I also love Dovahzul from the Elder Scrolls series. There's something magical about Dovahzul, I cannot explain it. Skilled speakers could tell me, perhaps ^^ Languages are the one thing I pay attention to, probably because I'm also very good at linking voices of actors/actresses in many media. Did you know that speaking (not writing) backwards is having a whole new language? If you think it is merely gibberish, you're sort of right but it also has this alien thing about it that makes it cool. Seriously, if you manage to properly hear a word backwards and properly say what it sounds like backwards and reverse that, you'd shock yourself with how scary accurate you may sound. I'm no expert in backwards speak but I know enough to do it reasonably well. I scare my mom lol I've noticed that many people mispronounce words backwards, it's kind of funny. Here's a tip - speak backwards in the same way you'd dissect a long word. For example: superpower = super and power. If you listen to each individual sound and literally reverse them with your mouth, you can make it sound almost exact. It's not always easy to do. The hardest part is reversing vocal tones; like reading a manga for the first time. When asking a question, the higher pitch comes first rather than last, same with exclamations. It's sort of like a whole new sentence structure like in other languages that aren't English. It's fascinating. Anyway, I'm rambling because I'm passionate about backwards speak heh. Mainly because a species in a video game story I'm working on will speak in such a way. But not just by simply reversing the audio, I mean ACTUALLY speaking it. Voice actors would have to learn backwards speak to do this. :)

I always feel like Ted Talks never have a thesis

Anyone here a linguistics nerd?

3:44 Simple Explanation! If the language derived from Proto-Indo-European then the past form of a verb, noun, adjective, whatever was said differently. Usually a vowel change.

A little disappointed High Valyrian wasn't featured in this video. Especially since Doulingo now has a Valyrian course.