Fictional Languages From Gaming You Can Really Learn
When developers put a lot of effort into building the world they want in a genuinely realistic fashion, they sometimes put a lot of effort into language creation, and that makes us love a game that much more. When this happens, you get to experience a whole new world, both through sight and sound.
Some might even enjoy this aspect of games so much that you want to bring these languages into your Everyday lexicon. And you can do just that, because, if you have the time, you can learn these ten languages.
10 Al Bhed – Final Fantasy X, X-2
The language spoken by the Al Bhed technologists Tribe in Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 has been created with the whole concept of giving you the impression of jumping into a real new world. The language is learnable, as it mixes Japanese and English words with a varied alphabet order.
The grammar structure is also mainly based on English, so if you’re fluent in English, you’re already halfway there. Next, you need to start memorizing the order of the letters. Six thousand!
9 Dovazhul – Skyrim
If you want to be the true Dragonborn of Skyrim, go out on the final side quest and learn Dovahzul, the language of Dragons. Dovahzul translates to Dragon Voice, and once you know the language, you’ll be able to Fus Ro Dah your way through life.
Before embarking on this journey, remember that Dovazhul has one of the hardest pronunciations in fictional languages. But don’t worry, because there is a great community online to help you learn it properly with in-depth resources and content to get it down.
8 Hylian – The Legend Of Zelda Series
The primary language spoken in Hyrule, both Old and New Hylan, are fictional languages you can learn for yourself. The language is one of the few to have transformed over the years, making the world-building within the Zelda series much more realistic and immersive.
Most that went on this journey to fully immerse themselves in Hylian lore know that the language is Mostly a cipher based on English. So any novice out there, don’t be discouraged because once you know the code and get the alphabet down, and you’ll be A-OK.
7 Angelic Alphabet – NieR Series
The NieR series comes in two languages you can come across throughout the game. The first one is Chaos Language, invented by the game soundtrack composer and singer Emi Evans. This language is a mix of what she imagines European languages to sound like a thousand years from now, but is Mostly gibberish.
The second one you come across is the Angelic Alphabet. This cipher is created within the game and is translatable to English, thanks to a couple of fans who went out and did a letter-per-letter translation. You’ll be able to pick up some Hidden story gems thanks to this new ability to decipher the codes and enhance your NieR experience.
6 Qunlat – Dragon Age Series
There are various Races in the Dragon Age series, and each one comes with its own language. But one faction that is the most rooted in its tradition and speaks the language for most of the game, the Qunari, allows to translate the language and find its intricacies.
Thanks to dedicated fans, you can pick up some of the phrases the Qunari say without reading the in-game translations. In addition, there are courses online for free to learn Qunlat where you can learn the basic verbs, affixes, idioms, and so on.
5 Tho Fan – Jade Empire
The language spoken in Jade Empire might give the impression of being a Generic Asian language to the untrained ear, with certain sounds being pulled directly from Chinese and Japanese. Still, the language was created specifically for the game by Wolf Wikeley, the same person behind the original Dragon Age languages.
Tho Fan being an actual language written by a linguist is learnable per see, but resources online are low as the Creator signed an NDA with Bioware. So until the company Releases the syntax and rules, you’ll have to base it on other People’s understanding of constructed languages (conlangs) to get by.
4 Dino Talk – Star Fox Series
Another Nintendo classic that created its own language is the Fantastic Star Fox series. Even though English is the primary language in most of the galaxy, the inhabitants of Dinosaur Planet speak Dino Talk. Luckily as soon as you get there, you are given a translator, but the die-hard fans went out and learned the cipher for themselves.
You can pick up this language quickly, as the cipher isn’t complicated. Consonants are replaced by other consonants, vowels by vowels, and remember that ‘Y’ is ‘0’.
3 Sangheili – Halo Series
The language preferred by the Covenant in Halo isn’t spoken as much as it used to, but if you are a lover of the classics, you should try and partake in the journey of learning the primary language of the Covenant Empire. Various rules, especially the triangular alphabet, make it pretty complicated, but you shouldn’t let that bring you down.
And as it isn’t a simple cipher, doing translation into English will be a little more complicated than with some of the other languages.
2 Sethian – Sethian
The whole premise of the game Sethian is to learn the Sethian language. The game puts you in a position where you must investigate the disappearance of the Sethainese people, and can only do that by understanding an alien language. The game gives you a little nudge at the beginning, but after that, it’s all up to you.
The creator, Grant Kuning, based the language on Chinese after studying it for three years, and leaves it up to you to understand how to connect and decipher all the symbols you need. Once you’ve finished the game, you’ll be fluent in Sethian.
1 Ancient Text – Heaven’s Vault
Another great game to try if you’re into learning fictional languages is Heaven’s Vault. You play as an archeologist in a different Galaxy called Nebula, who has to go around and discover what happened to the ancient Civilizations that once lived in the area.
The game is a relaxed version of the previous entry, Sethian, but the language learning will nevertheless put you to the test. With around 1000 words to learn, it’ll be a great addition to the languages you know.