Got an email the other day from a fan of the AvP novel my daughter and I did. Where, he wondered, could he get a Yautja dictionary or phrase book? He needed to translate something from English into Predator ...
Tolkien created his own language and they did a version of it for the LOTR movies. Trek did Klingon. Cameron did Na'vi. Grammar and everything.
We didn't, though. What's in the novel is all there is. Sorry.
Actually, the Kingon language is not complete. The Frengi 'Rules of Acquisition' is not consistent or full either.
ReplyDeleteThat was the only "Predator" novel I really enjoyed. I read two others but they were so-so.
ReplyDeleteYou know...
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of scary to me that there are people out there devoting the time to learning these imaginary languages. Tolkien's languages were his life work; as I understand it, he created Middle Earth almost as an exercise to justify the languages. There's a depth to Tolkien's writing that's just phenomenal because of that. But actually learning the languages or worrying about them from Star Trek, Star Wars, or whatever... Yeah, they just sort of amaze me. Why not learn a real language, that you can actually use outside of a group of fanatics?
Of course, I do spend several hours a week -- sometimes a day -- practicing and learning skills that I don't really use all that much, even as a cop. (And I'll even admit to having tried my hand at figuring out a certain 97 Steps for fun...) So maybe I'm not one to talk, huh?
But, y'know... I don't expect that every writer or series or whatever is going to have an in depth version of every language they come up with! Maybe a few notes for consistency, like "XiROFETUG is the word used for 'I'm gonna kill you!'" -- but that'd be it!