Fictional language - Definition and Overview

Some authors use fictional languages as a device to underline differences in culture, by having their characters communicate in a fashion which is both alien and dislocated. Primary examples of this are:

George Orwell's Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Václav Havel's Ptydepe in The Memorandum
Anthony Burgess's Nadsat in A Clockwork Orange
Iain M. Banks' Marain in his Culture novels and
Ursula K. LeGuin's Pravic in The Dispossessed.

Some of these languages are presented as distorted versions or dialects of modern English. Jack Womack's Dryco novels feature a future form of English with a modified grammar.

A fictional language is separated from an artlang (language constructed for beauty or fun) by both purpose and relative completion: a fictional language generally has the least amount of grammar and vocabulary possible, and it is made usually for a novel or movie.

Others have developed languages in detail for their own sake, such as the languages of Middle-earth of J. R. R. Tolkien, Star Trek's Klingon language and the languages in Star Wars.

See list of fictional languages for a more complete list.