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To many, one of the coolest things

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about "Game of Thrones"

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is that the inhabitants of the Dothraki Sea

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have their own real language.

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And Dothraki came hot on the heels

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of the real language that the Na'vi speak in "Avatar,"

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which, surely, the Na'vi needed

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when the Klingons in "Star Trek"

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have had their own whole language

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since 1979.

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And let's not forget the Elvish languages

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in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy,

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especially since that was the official grandfather

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of the fantasy conlangs.

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Conlang is short for constructed language.

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They're more than codes like Pig Latin,

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and they're not just collections

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of fabricated slang like the Nadsat lingo

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that the teen hoodlums

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in "A Clockwork Orange" speak,

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where droog from Russian

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happens to mean friend.

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What makes conlangs real languages

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isn't the number of words they have.

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It helps, of course, to have a lot of words.

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Dothraki has thousands of words.

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Na'vi started with 1500 words.

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Fans on websites have steadily created more.

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But we can see the difference

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between vocabulary alone

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and what makes a real language

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from a look at how Tolkien

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put together grand old Elvish,

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a conlang with several thousands words.

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After all, you could memorize 5,000 words of Russian

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and still be barely able to construct a sentence.

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A four-year-old would talk rings around you.

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That's because you have to know

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how to put the words together.

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That is, a real language has grammar.

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Elvish does.

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In English, to make a verb past,

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you add an "-ed".

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Wash, washed.

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In Elvish, wash is allu

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and washed is allune.

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Real languages also change over time.

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There's no such thing

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as a language that's the same today

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as it was a thousand years ago.

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As people speak, they drift into new habits,

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shed old ones,

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make mistakes,

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and get creative.

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Today, one says,

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"Give us today our daily bread."

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In Old English, they said,

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"Urne gedaeghwamlican hlaf syle us todaeg."

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Things change in conlangs, too.

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Tolkien charted out ancient

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and newer versions of Elvish.

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When the first Elves awoke at Cuivienen,

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in their new language,

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the word for people was kwendi,

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but in the language of one of the groups

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that moved away, Teleri,

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over time, kwendi became pendi,

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with the k turning into a p.

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And just like real languages,

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conlangs like Elvish split off into many.

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When the Romans transplanted Latin across Europe,

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French, Spanish, and Italian were born.

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When groups move to different places,

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over time their ways of speaking grow apart,

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just like everything else about them.

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Thus, Latin's word for hand was manus,

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but in French, it became main,

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while in Spain it became mano.

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Tolkien made sure Elvish did the same kind of thing.

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While that original word kwendi became pendi

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among the Teleri,

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among the Avari, who spread throughout Middle Earth,

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it became kindi

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when the w dropped out.

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The Elvish varieties Tolkien fleshed out the most

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are Quenya and Sindarin,

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and their words are different

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in the same way French and Spanish are.

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Quenya has suc for drink,

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Sindarin has sog.

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And as you know, real languages are messy.

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That's because they change,

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and change has a way of working against order,

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just like in a living room

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or on a bookshelf.

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Real languages are never perfectly logical.

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That's why Tolkien made sure

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that Elvish had plenty of exceptions.

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Lots of verbs are conjugated in ways

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you just have to know.

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Take even the word know.

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In the past, it's knew,

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which isn't explained by any of the rules in English.

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Oh well.

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In Elvish, know is ista,

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but knew is sinte.

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Oh well.

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The truth is, though,

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that Elvish is more a sketch for a real language

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than a whole one.

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For Tolkien, Elvish was a hobby

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rather than an attempt to create something

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people could actually speak.

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Much of the Elvish the characters

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in the "Lord of the Rings" movies speak

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has been made up since Tolkien

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by dedicated fans of Elvish

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based on guesses as to what Tolkien

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would have constructed.

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That's the best we can do for Elvish

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because there are no actual Elves around

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to speak it for us.

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But the modern conlangs go further.

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Dothraki, Na'vi, and Klingon are developed enough

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that you can actually speak them.

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Here's a translation of "Hamlet" into Klingon,

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although performing it would mean getting used

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to pronouncing k with your uvula,

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that weird, cartoony thing hanging

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in the back of your throat.

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Believe it or not,

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you actually do that in plenty

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of languages around the world,

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like Eskimo ones.

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Pronouncing Elvish is much easier, though.

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So, let's take our leave for now

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from this introduction to conlangs in Elvish

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and the other three conglangs discussed

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with a heartfelt quad-conlangual valedictory:

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"A na marie!"

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"Hajas!"

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Na'vi's "Kiyevame!"

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"Qapla!"

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and "Goodbye!"