Invented Languages of Film Trivia Quiz

Answer: Parseltongue

A number of characters in the 'Harry Potter' series speak the language of snakes, including Harry himself. Parseltongue is believed to have originated with the Dark Wizard Herpo the Foul. Those who speak Parseltongue are called Parselmouths.

Answer: Nadsat

Creating an artificial language isn't easy. The creator wants the language to sound as authentic as possible and not just gibberish. Author Anthony Burgess, multi-lingual himself, created the teen language Nadsat which he based on Russian. The language can be heard in the film.

Answer: Huttese

Huttese, among other made-up languages of 'Star Wars', was spoken by the Hutts, slug-like creatures originally from the planet Varl. Humans and other non-humans spoke it as well. Ben Burtt, sound designer for the film series, created Huttese, basing it on the Quechua language of South America as well as a blend of other languages.

Answer: Timoka

Respected Swedish director Ingmar Bergman used Estonian as the basis for the language spoken by the residents of the fictional Central European town Timoka. This 1963 film focuses on the relationship between two sisters, one of whom has a young son. The titular silence symbolizes the lack of communication on several different levels.

Answer: Mondoshawan

The Mondoshawan were an ancient race of beings protecting the Fifth Element from destructive forces. Mondoshawan, or the "Divine Language", is predominantly a form of French which would seem a natural choice since director/writer Luc Bresson is Parisian. Other languages such as English and Aramaic were added.

Answer: Na'vi

Na'vi, the language spoken in the film "Avatar", was created by Paul Frommer, a linguistics professor. He based much of it on the native language of the Maoris of New Zealand. Aboriginal languages often join words together to form compound words which Frommer used to his advantage in creating Na'vi.

Answer: Sindarin

From the brilliant mind of Tolkien comes the language of the elves of Middle Earth: Sindarin. It is one of several languages created by the author for his fantasy series. Tolkien had a love of Finnish, Greek, and Latin and used his knowledge of the languages to create Quenya, a language that appeared in the novels. Director Peter Jackson hired a linguist to develop the Sindarin language, which he based primarily on Welsh.

Answer: Atlantean

Marc Okrand created the fictional Atlantean language which he based on various Indo-European languages. The language's script is unusual in that it alternates between reading left to right on the first line, right to left on the second, and so forth. Okrand based this form of script on ancient manuscripts.

Answer: Minionese

Polyglot languages borrow vocabulary and grammar from other languages. Many languages, including Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish and Russian were used to create the fictional language of the Minions. Minionese was created by Pierre Coffin who also provided the voices for the Minions.

Answer: Fremen

When author Frank Herbert wrote his novel "Dune", he incorporated his own language which he called Fremen. This conlang was spoken by the natives of the planet Arrakis, or Dune, in the film. Fremen is mostly based on Arabic.