diff --git "a/4f917818-f833-47c4-ab0c-96edbb7e0668.json" "b/4f917818-f833-47c4-ab0c-96edbb7e0668.json" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/4f917818-f833-47c4-ab0c-96edbb7e0668.json" @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +{ + "interaction_id": "4f917818-f833-47c4-ab0c-96edbb7e0668", + "search_results": [ + { + "page_name": "Which languages are most commonly used in movies?", + "page_url": "https://stephenfollows.com/languages-most-commonly-used-in-movies/", + "page_snippet": "Tui got in touch to ask "I was wondering how many Non-U.S. English-language narrative drama features get Theatrical North American distribution". It's a great question and so I set about answering it. In the end, the data took me on quite a journey, so I'm splitting what I found into two articles: ...Tui got in touch to ask \"I was wondering how many Non-U.S. English-language narrative drama features get Theatrical North American distribution\". It's a great question and so I set about answering it. In the end, the data took me on quite a journey, so I'm splitting what I found into two articles: This week -... Today\u2019s data came from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, The Numbers and Wikipedia. The study looks at feature films shown in US cinemas between 1st January 2003 and 21st December 2017 and includes re-releases and re-issues. I did not watch every movie, noting all languages spoken, and so I am slightly at the mercy of public information. That said, it lags behind Latin, which I\u2019ve added to the chart below, despite Latin not being in the main line-up of \u2018most commonly used languages\u2019. Perhaps surprisingly, Romance is more a feature of films with Italian than those with French. Finally, let\u2019s turn to sci-fi and war movies. Over one in ten films with Russian dialogue are science fiction movies. War movies make up a disproportionately large share of the movies featuring dialogue in German, Arabic and Hebrew. Today\u2019s data came from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, The Numbers and Wikipedia. War movies make up a disproportionately large share of the movies featuring dialogue in German, Arabic and Hebrew. Today\u2019s data came from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, The Numbers and Wikipedia. The study looks at feature films shown in US cinemas between 1st January 2003 and 21st December 2017 and includes re-releases and re-issues.", + "page_result": "Which languages are most commonly used in movies?
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Which languages are most commonly used in movies?

2 April '18 3 Comments on Which languages are most commonly used in movies?

\"\"Tui got in touch to ask “I was wondering how many Non-U.S. English-language narrative drama features get Theatrical North American distribution“. It’s a great question and so I set about answering it. In the end, the data took me on quite a journey, so I’m splitting what I found into two articles:

  1. This week – What languages are most commonly used in movies?
  2. Next week –\u00a0How many non-English language films get a US theatrical release?

This research looks at all movies released in North American cinemas\u00a0for the fifteen years between 2003 and 2017 (inclusive), including re-releases and re-issues of older movies.

How many languages are in modern movies?

Films can have more than one language, and indeed, 31% of the films in my study did.\u00a0 The film with the highest number of languages\u00a0is Life in a Day, featuring at least twenty. \"\" Across all my movies I counted 168 unique languages, although only fifteen featured in more than 100 movies.\u00a0 Not all are current; Latin is the 16th most frequently used non-English language spoken in movies (2003-17).\u00a0 It may be officially classed as a ‘dead language’ but it’s alive and well on the big screen.

Also represented were fictional languages such as Klingon (from the Star Trek universe),\u00a0Na’vi\u00a0(from Avatar) and languages from The Lord of The Rings / Hobbit universe, including\u00a0Quenya and\u00a0Sindarin.

The most popular languages in modern movies

Across those 8,798 movies studied, 81.4% featured English as one of their main languages.

Other popular languages included French (featured in 12% of movies),\u00a0Spanish (8.6%),\u00a0German, (5.2%) and Hindi (4.9%). \"\" If these numbers seem high, remember that a movie will show up on the list even if just a few lines are in that language.\u00a0 It’s not that 12% of movies are entirely in French, but rather than 12% of movies feature at least one line in French at some point.

Which languages are rising and which are waning?

European languages fared well on the previous chart, taking the three top spots.\u00a0 This may not last if current trends continue, as many of the top\u00a0European languages\u00a0are in decline, with French hardest hit.\u00a0 In 2003, 16% of movies featured at least some spoken French, whereas in 2017 it had fallen to just 6%. \"\" On the flip side, a number of Asian languages are increasingly appearing in movies, with Mandarin, Korean and Hindi all growing in usage. \"\"

How genres change between languages

As a final part of today’s instalment on\u00a0languages, let’s look at how languages differ between genres.

The charts below show what percentage of movies in each language are of a certain genre. For example, in my study, I found 1,064 movies featuring French, of which 283 were comedies.\u00a0 In this case, French would show up as 27% on the comedy chart, as that’s the percentage of French-featuring films which were comedies.\u00a0 It can take a moment to get your head around, but once you do it’s fascinating to see how genre and language are correlated.

Of the most commonly-used languages, Hindi has the highest proportion of comedies, accounting for 43% of all films featuring Hindi. Films featuring Russian and Arabic are least likely to be comedies. 23% of all films featuring Japanese in US cinemas are animations. \"\" Horror is also a popular genre of films featuring Japanese.\u00a0 That said, it lags behind Latin, which I’ve added to the chart below, despite Latin not being in the main line-up of ‘most commonly used languages’. Perhaps surprisingly, Romance is more a feature of films with Italian than those with French. \"\" Finally, let’s turn to sci-fi and war movies.\u00a0 Over one in ten films with Russian dialogue are science fiction movies.\u00a0 War movies make up a disproportionately large share of the movies featuring dialogue in German, Arabic and Hebrew. \"\"

Notes

Today’s data came from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, The Numbers and Wikipedia.\u00a0 \u00a0The study looks at feature films shown in US cinemas between 1st January\u00a02003 and 21st December 2017 and includes re-releases and re-issues. I did not watch every movie, noting all languages spoken, and so I am slightly at the mercy of public information.\u00a0 I did cross reference data between sources, and in a few cases, dig deeper individually.\u00a0 This may mean that some movies are missing the fact that a single character spoke a line in a non-English language. However, I do not feel this would skew the overall results.

Unless otherwise stated, all figures\u00a0relate to the North American (i.e. “Domestic”) box office gross.\u00a0 I have not accounted for inflation in these figures.

Theatrical tracking of very small\u00a0releases can be patchy.\u00a0 This means that if a film opened on a couple of screens for just a week, then it could be missed by the organisations that gather data.\u00a0 Therefore, the raw numbers of movies may be slightly higher, although these kinds of errors are unlikely to affect the box office totals as once a movie starts to gross well, it will quickly get noticed.

I wanted to go back further than fifteen years but the further back you go the patchier the data becomes, and as non-English language films are more likely to be the smaller films (and thus most overlooked) the topic is disproportionately affected by poor data. 2003 was the oldest year for which I could be confident I had tracked at least 99% of movies released.

Many official listings of movies just put “Chinese”, rather than Mandarin or Cantonese.\u00a0When researching the movies to discover which was used, I found that often the quickest route was to look for people complaining about the pronunciation (such as here for Wonder\u00a0Woman).\u00a0 Sometimes, it wasn’t clear which Chinese language was used and so I made an assumption based on the actors and the language they most commonly spoke on-screen in other movies.

In the section looking at genre, it’s important to remember that this refers to the films which make their way to US cinema screens.\u00a0 It’s not a comment on the national film output of countries which speak each language.\u00a0 If you want to get an idea of which genre is favoured in each country’s film production, you may enjoy an article from the start\u00a0of the year entitled\u00a0How the genre of film production changes around the world.

Epilogue

Today was another example of a great question from a reader (thanks Tui!). If you have a question or query, then drop me a line.

If you’re running a film-based pub quiz and need a tough tie-break question, try this one:

Of all the languages spoken in all of the movies released in US cinemas (2003-17), which language has both the highest average budget and the highest average gross?

Answer in 5.. .

4

.

3

.

2

.

1

.

Answer:\u00a0Greenlandic.\u00a0 It is an Inuit language spoken as one of the two languages in Gravity, meaning that the average budget for Greenlandic language movies is $100 million and the average domestic gross is $274 million.

\"Share\"

Comments

3 comments
  1. Pradeep

    Hi,
    This is interesting. I have a specific query. I come from South India and India is home to not just Bollywood which is Hindi cinema but also several other film industries based on regional languages. I’m not sure but I believe that movies from these other Indian also release in the US in almost the same number as Hindi films do. So, I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t show up. Maybe all Indian movies are tagged Hindi? Is that a possibility?

    Or is it that the regional movies release in lesser number than Hindi? A

    Reply
  2. Jan Dottschadis

    Hello Stephen,
    I’m just curious. As a German, we translate and voice over a lot of foreign movies mostly English spoken movies. So far I could not find the film or movie with the most language tracks.
    Can you please check and help to find that out?

    Reply

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Stephen Follows ", + "page_last_modified": "" + }, + { + "page_name": "Talking in Circles: Creating the Alien Language of 'Arrival' | Space", + "page_url": "https://www.space.com/35696-arrival-movie-alien-language-explained.html", + "page_snippet": "The production designer for the Oscar-nominated science fiction movie "Arrival" talks about creating the striking visual elements of the film.Every idea they came up with seemed too artificial, Vermette said. Even someone who couldn't read the language would very likely recognize the symbols as a means of delivering information. \"We wanted to have something that was aesthetically pleasing, and that [viewers] could not at first know that it's a language or not,\" Vermette said.\" Bertrand, who was also at the news conference, is Vermette's wife. nky circles serve as the written language of an alien species in the movie \"Arrival.\" (Image credit: Paramount Pictures) But what exactly those circles would look like stumped them. Every idea they came up with seemed too artificial, Vermette said. Even someone who couldn't read the language would very likely recognize the symbols as a means of delivering information. Visually, the movie embraces minimalism, rather than flashy, high-tech settings. The movie's palette is dark and earth-toned (even the spaceships are a natural material). \u00b7 But \"Arrival\" still boasts great visual complexity. Perhaps the most obvious example is in the alien's written language. Bertrand, who was also at the news conference, is Vermette's wife. He says she offered to take a shot at designing the language symbols, and it took her only a day to come up with something similar to the finished product. Vermette said Bertrand's solution seemed so obvious once she showed it to them. (\"I felt very stupid not to have asked her before,\" he said.) \u00b7 Humans work to interpret the inky written language of an alien species in the movie \"Arrival.\"", + "page_result": "\n\n\n\n\n\nTalking in Circles: Creating the Alien Language of 'Arrival' | Space\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSkip to main content\n
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Talking in Circles: Creating the Alien Language of 'Arrival'

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\nWritten \"alien\" language from Arrival movie\n
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\nnky circles serve as the written language of an alien species in the movie \"Arrival.\"\n(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)\n
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The Oscar-nominated science-fiction film \"Arrival\" arrives on Blu-ray today in 4K high dynamic range (HDR). Space.com recently spoke with the film's production designer about the striking visual elements of the film. 

\"Arrival\" tells the story of two scientists attempting to communicate with alien beings who arrive in massive stone spaceships at various locations around the globe. Visually, the movie embraces minimalism, rather than flashy, high-tech settings. The movie's palette is dark and earth-toned (even the spaceships are a natural material). 

But \"Arrival\" still boasts great visual complexity. Perhaps the most obvious example is in the alien's written language. The symbols look like circles of randomly splattered ink, but in this fictional world, every inky tendril is intentional. This was one of the central elements that the film's production designer, Patrice Vermette, and the director, Denis Villeneuve, struggled to perfect. Ultimately, it was the artist Martine Bertrand who cracked the code. ['Arrival', AI and Alien Math: Q&A with Stephen Wolfram] 

Circles are a very important, recurring theme in \"Arrival.\" The story explores the nature of time as a circle, and circles appear in many places throughout the film — for example, a hospital where two crucial events take place in the movie has a circular layout. Villeneuve wanted the aliens' written language to be based on circles, Vermette told a group of reporters at a news conference Friday (Feb. 10) at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. 

nky circles serve as the written language of an alien species in the movie \"Arrival.\" (Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

But what exactly those circles would look like stumped them. Every idea they came up with seemed too artificial, Vermette said. Even someone who couldn't read the language would very likely recognize the symbols as a means of delivering information.

\"We wanted to have something that was aesthetically pleasing, and that [viewers] could not at first know that it's a language or not,\" Vermette said.\"

Bertrand, who was also at the news conference, is Vermette's wife. He says she offered to take a shot at designing the language symbols, and it took her only a day to come up with something similar to the finished product. Vermette said Bertrand's solution seemed so obvious once she showed it to them. (\"I felt very stupid not to have asked her before,\" he said.) 

Humans work to interpret the inky written language of an alien species in the movie \"Arrival.\"

Humans work to interpret the inky written language of an alien species in the movie \"Arrival.\" (Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

The symbols all start with a black circle, which then has loose tendrils and splotches branching out from the solid ring. The splotches look as though they were made by hand using an ink pen. (The aliens in the movie squirt the ink out of their bodies, sort of like a squid or an octopus.). 

In the film, the scientists discover that the circles typically represent a full statement, but the statement can be broken up into words. The protagonists eventually create an index of these inky words, so they can write messages to the aliens. In reality, Vermette said he and Villeneuve had their own index of about 100 alien words made in the style that Bertrand designed. As the project moved forward, the pair consulted with real-world linguists and archaeologists to help refine the design. 

Seth Shostak, a scientist at the SETI Institute (SETI stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence), said some scientists have thought about how humans might translate alien languages. Linguists have shown that there are many redundancies in human languages, which is part of how we are able to comprehend spoken languages at all, Shostak said. For example, studies have shown that if all the vowels are removed from a written document, a person (who has never seen the document in its complete form) can still read most of the words. 

\"It turns out there's a mathematical law for the redundancy of any language,\" Shostak said. \"And you can apply that to the sounds made by dolphins or even other critters, like ants. And they follow this same mathematical law. So that suggests that it's not just noise [the animals are making], there's actually a language there. So I think that if you picked up a signal coming from aliens, you'd do the same thing.\"

The \"Arrival\" Blu-ray is available now, and comes with a bonus disk that includes five featurettes about the film: \"Xenolinguistics: Understanding 'Arrival'\"; \"Acoustic Signatures: The Sound Design\"; \"Eternal Recurrence: The Score\"; \"Nonlinear Thinking: The Editorial Process\"; and \"Principles of Time, Memory & Language.\"

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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\"Calla
Calla Cofield
Senior Writer

Calla Cofield joined Space.com's crew in October 2014. She enjoys writing about black holes, exploding stars, ripples in space-time, science in comic books, and all the mysteries of the cosmos. Prior to joining Space.com Calla worked as a freelance writer, with her work appearing in APS News, Symmetry magazine, Scientific American, Nature News, Physics World, and others. From 2010 to 2014 she was a producer for The Physics Central Podcast. Previously, Calla worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (hands down the best office building ever) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. Calla studied physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is originally from Sandy, Utah. In 2018, Calla left Space.com to join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory media team where she oversees astronomy, physics, exoplanets and the Cold Atom Lab mission. She has been underground at three of the largest particle accelerators in the world and would really like to know what the heck dark matter is. Contact Calla via: E-Mail – Twitter

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\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n", + "page_last_modified": " Sun, 17 Mar 2024 13:23:57 GMT" + }, + { + "page_name": "A history of Hollywood's invented languages | CNN Business", + "page_url": "https://www.cnn.com/2012/04/06/tech/the-history-of-created-languages-in-pop-culture/index.html", + "page_snippet": "Editor\u2019s Note: David Peterson is the creator of the Dothraki language used in the HBO show \u2018Game of Thrones.\u2019 Peterson not only created the language but also served as translator/dialect coach for select cast in \u2018Game of Thrones.\u2019 He is also a member of the Language Creation Society.Still, it was unheard of to create an entire language for a fictional race of people. Usually in fantasy and science-fiction movies and films, snippets like Klaatu barada nikto (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951) sufficed. That changed when the creators of the original Land of the Lost (1974-76) television series reached out to linguist Victoria Fromkin at UCLA to create a language for the primate humanoid Pakuni people. So, where are we now? Following Avatar, of course, came Game of Thrones (2011-present) featuring the Dothraki language, and in film, John Carter (2012) featuring a fleshed-out version of Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 Barsoomian language. And with more productions on the large and small screen featuring created languages, the expectations of the audience have been raised. Not only did Avatar feature a fully-developed created language (Na\u2019vi created by Paul Frommer), but the film was, well, the highest grossing film of all time. So, where are we now? Following Avatar, of course, came Game of Thrones (2011-present) featuring the Dothraki language, and in film, John Carter (2012) featuring a fleshed-out version of Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 Barsoomian language. Moviegoers are familiar with the racism inherent in casting the \u201cother\u201d in older films. For the film, if an actor looked \u201cAsian\u201d that was good enough. That same attitude extended to the use of language in the film. Even without knowing Chinese, you can watch Thoroughly Modern Millie and tell that the \u201cChinese\u201d spoken is complete and utter gobbledygook.", + "page_result": " \n\n \n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n A history of Hollywood\u2019s invented languages | CNN Business\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n
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\n A history of Hollywood\u2019s invented languages\n

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\n 4 minute read\n
\n \n Published\n 9:53 PM EDT, Fri April 6, 2012\n
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\n The next list Peterson weekend piece _00010308\n
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Dreaming up languages for movies, TV
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\n \n 03:46\n \n - Source:\n CNN\n \n
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\n Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0\n \n David Peterson is the creator of the Dothraki language used in the HBO show \u2018Game of Thrones.\u2019 Peterson not only created the language but also served as translator/dialect coach for select cast in \u2018Game of Thrones.\u2019 He\u00a0is also a member of the Language Creation Society. \u00a0A 30-minute profile of Peterson will air on\u00a0The Next List\u00a0on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on CNN.\n

\n\n

\n The full history of language creation is a fascinating and varied one, but for now, I want to focus on the use of created languages in television and film. As a starting point, it\u2019s useful to examine the usage of \u201cforeign languages\u201d in television and film. Though it\u2019s hard to imagine at this point a Russian character speaking something other than authentic and grammatically appropriate Russian in a feature-length film, that hasn\u2019t always been the case.\n

\n\n

\n Consider, for example, the film adaptation of Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Moviegoers are familiar with the racism inherent in casting the \u201cother\u201d in older films. For the film, if an actor looked \u201cAsian\u201d that was good enough. That same attitude extended to the use of language in the film. Even without knowing Chinese, you can watch Thoroughly Modern Millie and tell that the \u201cChinese\u201d spoken is complete and utter gobbledygook. That, though, was simply a detail: as long as it sounded \u201cAsian\u201d, that was good enough. And mind, this was 1967.\n

\n\n

\n As it turns out, the same creative pressure that led to the fake Chinese of Thoroughly Modern Millie also led to some of the earliest uses of created languages in one form or another. In order to satirize Nazi Germany, for example, Charlie Chaplin invented a fictional country called Tomainia for his film The Great Dictator (1940) that was supposed to look German. Similar creations can be seen in television shows like Danger Man (1960-68), where in order to be able to use Soviet countries as a backdrop, the show runners used Soviet-like country names with invented dialogue that sounded vaguely Slavic, but which wasn\u2019t an actual Slavic language. This tradition of fictional \u201creal\u201d countries and fictional \u201creal\u201d languages has continued into the present, with some modern examples like the Krakozhian language in The Terminal (2004), and the more fully developed Ku language in The Interpreter (2005).\n

\n\n\n

\n Still, it was unheard of to create an entire language for a fictional race of people. Usually in fantasy and science-fiction movies and films, snippets like Klaatu barada nikto (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951) sufficed. That changed when the creators of the original Land of the Lost (1974-76) television series reached out to linguist Victoria Fromkin at UCLA to create a language for the primate humanoid Pakuni people. Fromkin developed a more-or-less full grammar and about 200 words that were introduced gradually in the show, to allow viewers to learn the Pakuni language as the show progressed.\n

\n\n

\n Of course, the watershed moment was Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), when Marc Okrand was hired to create a language the Klingons could speak in the film.\n

\n\n

\n Following Star Trek III, several films and shows began to experiment with con-langs, or created languages. However, the next large-scale production to use a conlang was The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-03). Peter Jackson was determined to be as faithful to J. R. R. Tolkien\u2019s books as possible, and since the books themselves were an outgrowth of Tolkien\u2019s own created languages, the movies simply couldn\u2019t go to screen without featuring the languages of Middle Earth.\n

\n\n

\n It was likely the outstanding success of The Lord of the Rings that led Hollywood producers to believe that there was a potential market for created languages in film. Those of us who create languages, then, were lucky that Avatar (2009) was the next film to take the leap. Not only did Avatar feature a fully-developed created language (Na\u2019vi created by Paul Frommer), but the film was, well, the highest grossing film of all time.\n

\n\n

\n So, where are we now? Following Avatar, of course, came Game of Thrones (2011-present) featuring the Dothraki language, and in film, John Carter (2012) featuring a fleshed-out version of Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 Barsoomian language. And with more productions on the large and small screen featuring created languages, the expectations of the audience have been raised. New big-budget productions that feature fictional beings are expected to have fictional languages for those beings to use.\n

\n\n

\n Klaatu barada nikto simply won\u2019t cut it any longer.\n

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\n \n\n\n", + "page_last_modified": "" + }, + { + "page_name": "Canadian film made in language spoken by just 20 people in the ...", + "page_url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/28/canadian-film-made-in-haida-language-spoken-by-just-20-people-in-the-world", + "page_snippet": "The film aims to preserve the endangered dialects of British Columbia\u2019s Haida peopleHe observed that Haida is among languages that have been \u201cpushed almost to the edge\u201d and that, while numerous indigenous communities worldwide are trying to revive their language, the Haida people have taken a particularly innovative approach. \u201cThis film \u2013 which I\u2019ve watched and loved \u2013 has done something that I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen before, using a feature movie as a process of language revitalisation \u2026 Plenty of films are somewhat incomprehensible, but a forthcoming movie is in a language that only about 20 people in the world can speak fluently. \u201cThis film \u2013 which I\u2019ve watched and loved \u2013 has done something that I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen before, using a feature movie as a process of language revitalisation \u2026 It\u2019s a hugely creative and powerful commitment for the community to have made,\u201d he said. The UK premiere is part of the Canada Now film festival, showcasing new Canadian cinema, at the Curzon Soho, London, from 24 to 28 April. The film is playing an important role in preserving the language, its director Gwaai Edenshaw said. He told the Guardian: \u201cI know that, if our language is this far gone, statistically it\u2019s supposed to be over. But that\u2019s not something that we\u2019re willing to accept.\u201d", + "page_result": "\n \n \n\t\t\t \n\n\t\t\t\t\n\n Canadian film made in language spoken by just 20 people in the world | Indigenous peoples | The Guardian\n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
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\"Actor
Actor Tyler York performing in SGaawaay K\u2019uuna. Photograph: Niijang Xyaalas Productions
Actor Tyler York performing in SGaawaay K\u2019uuna. Photograph: Niijang Xyaalas Productions
This article is more than 4 years old

Canadian film made in language spoken by just 20 people in the world

This article is more than 4 years old

The film aims to preserve the endangered dialects of British Columbia\u2019s Haida people

Plenty of films are somewhat incomprehensible, but a forthcoming movie is in a language that only about 20 people in the world can speak fluently.

With subtitles, audiences will be able to understand a feature film titled SGaawaay K\u2019uuna, translated as Edge of the Knife, which has its UK premiere in April.

It is in two dialects of the highly endangered Haida language, the ancestral tongue of the Haida people of British Columbia. It is unrelated to any other language, and actors had to learn it to understand their lines.

The film is playing an important role in preserving the language, its director Gwaai Edenshaw said. He told the Guardian: \u201cI know that, if our language is this far gone, statistically it\u2019s supposed to be over. But that\u2019s not something that we\u2019re willing to accept.\u201d

The Haida are an Indigenous First Nations community whose traditional territory is Haida Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte Islands), an archipelago of forested islands off the west coast of Canada.

Canada\u2019s Haida Gwaii archipelago: kayaking to the edge of the world
Read more

Edenshaw said most of the fluent Haida speakers were in his Haida Gwaii homeland. \u201cThere\u2019s a smattering off the island [who] also speak it.\u201d Edenshaw himself speaks some of the language but is not fluent, having been taught at school in English.

Actors in the film had to learn the language to understand their lines. Photograph: Niijang Xyaalas Productions

He added that the community generally lives off the sea and makes dugout canoes and houses from local red cedars. Noting that their numbers were ravaged by smallpox and other diseases in the 19th century, he said a former population of tens of thousands has dwindled to a few thousand today.

The few Haida speakers are extremely concerned about the language\u2019s future and were very enthusiastic about the film, he said. \u201cWe had to rely heavily upon the elders for the translation. We wrote it in English.\u201d

More than 70 local people worked on the production, with Haida speakers taking incidental roles, weavers creating the costumes and other craftspeople making props.

The film, set on Haida Gwaii in the 19th century, is based on an old Haida myth about a man who survives an accident at sea, only to become so weakened that he is taken over by supernatural beings.

It is part of a wider push to preserve the Haida language, including a new dictionary and recordings of local voices.

Actor Adeana Young as Hlaaya. Photograph: Niijang Xyaalas Productions

Edenshaw said Haida uses a lot of \u201cguttural sounds and glottal stops\u201d and that actors needed to learn it because it differs from English, let alone other languages: \u201cWhen you upspeak to denote a question in English, that doesn\u2019t exist in Haida. There is an upspeak, but the questioning portion \u2026 appears in the middle of the sentence.\u201d

That was among the details that his cast of non-Haida speakers had to learn over many months before the shoot.

2019 is Unesco\u2019s Year of Indigenous Languages, \u201cto preserve, support and promote\u201d them worldwide.

Mark Turin, associate professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia and a specialist in endangered languages, told the Guardian that about half of up to 7,100 languages worldwide were \u201cseverely endangered\u201d and would likely cease to be used as everyday vernaculars by the end of this century unless action is taken.

He said colonialism had historically taken its toll on indigenous languages, with some communities actively prevented from speaking them.

\u201cOne of the enduring horrors of British colonialism is the conviction that one language \u2013 English \u2013 would be suitable for all interactions and activities. Colonisation resulted in the intergenerational transmission of language effectively breaking down. It\u2019s far harder to relearn a language after you have stopped speaking it.\u201d

He pointed to recent research that shows a correlation between indigenous language sustainability and decreased youth suicide within indigenous communities: \u201cSpeaking your indigenous language is not just learning French in school. It has public health implications.\u201d

He observed that Haida is among languages that have been \u201cpushed almost to the edge\u201d and that, while numerous indigenous communities worldwide are trying to revive their language, the Haida people have taken a particularly innovative approach. \u201cThis film \u2013 which I\u2019ve watched and loved \u2013 has done something that I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen before, using a feature movie as a process of language revitalisation \u2026 It\u2019s a hugely creative and powerful commitment for the community to have made,\u201d he said.

The UK premiere is part of the Canada Now film festival, showcasing new Canadian cinema, at the Curzon Soho, London, from 24 to 28 April.

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\n \n ", + "page_last_modified": "" + }, + { + "page_name": "12 Fictional Film and TV Languages You Can Actually Learn | Mental ...", + "page_url": "https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/84993/12-fictional-film-and-tv-languages-you-can-actually-learn", + "page_snippet": "Speak like an alien, elf, or droog with these learnable fictional languages.While Cameron was developing the filmmaking technology to bring the 3D film to fruition, he also brought on University of Southern California linguist Dr. Paul Frommer to help bring the alien culture of the Na\u2019vi to the big screen. The pair worked for months, creating a language that was a mixture of Ethiopian and New Zealand M\u0101ori languages to develop a lexicon with more than 1000 words. Okrand created a complex writing and language system with writer's scripts, an Atlantean alphabet, and reader's script for the Disney animated film. James Cameron was developing Avatar for 15 years before it was released in December 2009. While Cameron was developing the filmmaking technology to bring the 3D film to fruition, he also brought on University of Southern California linguist Dr. In the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, author Anthony Burgess created the language Nadsat for his teenage characters who used it as slang throughout the book and later in the 1971 movie adaptation. The fictional language is essentially English with some borrowed Russian and Gypsy words and terms, along with childish phrasing. Despicable Me co-director Pierre Coffin created Minionese for the animated movie and its sequels. While the language might sound like gibberish or baby talk, Coffin, who also voices the Minions, borrowed Minionese from other languages, such as Spanish, French, Japanese, Tagalog, Korean, and English.", + "page_result": "\n \n \n \n \n \n \n 12 Fictional Film and TV Languages You Can Actually Learn | Mental Floss\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n
\"Mental

12 Fictional Film and TV Languages You Can Actually Learn

By Rudie Obias

\"YouTube\"
YouTube / YouTube
\"facebook\"\"twitter\"\"reddit\"

While many movies, books, and TV shows take place in alien or fantasy worlds, it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t learn how to speak their fictional languages. Here are 12 that you can start studying right now.

1. NADSAT

In the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, author Anthony Burgess created the language Nadsat for his teenage characters who used it as slang throughout the book and later in the 1971 movie adaptation. The fictional language is essentially English with some borrowed Russian and Gypsy words and terms, along with childish phrasing. Nadsat is derived from the Russian word for teen; it also borrows from cockney slang and German.

Example: \u201cI read this with care, my brothers, slurping away at the old chai (tea), cup after tass (cup) after chasha (teacup), crunching my lomticks of black toast dipped in jammiwam (jam) and eggiweg (egg).\u201d

2. ELVISH

Before he even started to write The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, author and linguist J.R.R. Tolkien developed the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin for Middle Earth. Quenya is the language of the High Elves of Eldamar, while Sindarin was spoken by the Grey Elves of Telerin. Tolkien based Elvish on Finnish and Welsh, along with a few elements of Greek and Latin.

Example: \u201c\u00cal s\u00edla erin l\u00fb e-govaned v\u00een.\u201d \u2014 \u201cA star shines on the hour of our meeting.\u201d

3. HUTTESE

Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt created Huttese for Return of the Jedi in 1983. Burtt derived the language from an ancient Incan dialect called Quechua. It\u2019s a fictional language that is mainly spoken by Jabba the Hutt and his species on Tatooine, but many other characters can speak Huttese, such as C-3PO, Anakin Skywalker, and Watto from 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Example: \u201cWee now kong bantha poodoo.\u201d \u2014 \u201cNow you\u2019re bantha fodder.\u201d

4. KLINGON

\nCreated from only a few words and phrases, Klingon was first used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, but it became a full-fledged language five years later for Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Linguist Marc Okrand created and developed the alien language from words originally made up by actor James Doohan (who played Scotty) in the original film. In 1985, Okrand, who also created the Vulcan language, later wrote The Klingon Dictionary, which includes pronunciation, grammar rules, and vocabulary from the Star Trek alien species. Over the years, many plays from William Shakespeare were translated into Klingon, such as Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing.

Example: \u201cbortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay.\u201d \u2014 \u201cRevenge is a dish best served cold.\u201d

5. MINIONESE

Despicable Me co-director Pierre Coffin created Minionese for the animated movie and its sequels. While the language might sound like gibberish or baby talk, Coffin, who also voices the Minions, borrowed Minionese from other languages, such as Spanish, French, Japanese, Tagalog, Korean, and English.

\u201cI have my Indian or Chinese menu handy. I also know a little bit of Spanish, Italian, Indonesian, and Japanese. So I have all these sources of inspiration for their words,\u201d Coffin told the Los Angeles Daily News. \u201cI just pick one that doesn\u2019t express something by the meaning but rather the melody of the words.\u201d

Example: \u201cLe jori e\u2019 tu\u201d \u2014 \u201cFor better or worse\u201d

6. PARSELTONGUE

J.K. Rowling created Parseltongue for the Harry Potter book series. It\u2019s the fictional language of serpents and those who can speak it are known as Parselmouths, who are descendants of Salazar Slytherin, with Harry Potter as an exception. Rowling even wrote a user guide to Parseltongue on her website, Pottermore.

7. LAPINE

Author Richard Adams created the fictional language called Lapine in his 1972 novel Watership Down and its sequel Tales from Watership Down. It\u2019s primarily spoken to make the rabbit characters sound more \u201cwuffy, fluffy\u201d and comes from the French word lapin, which means rabbit. "I just constructed Lapine as I went\u2014when the rabbits needed a word for something, so did I," Adams explained during an Reddit AMA.

8. DOTHRAKI

\nLinguist David J. Peterson developed the Dothraki language for Game of Thrones from George R.R. Martin\u2019s fantasy novel series. He created the language for the nomadic warriors with a combination of Arabic and Spanish sounds, along with Swahili and Estonian. Currently, there are over 3100 Dothraki words. Peterson also wrote Living Language Dothraki: A Conversational Language Course, so Game of Thrones fans could also learn and speak the language.

In 2015, \u201cKhaleesi\u201d Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), the wife of the Dothraki ruler \u201cKhal," was a very popular name for newborn baby girls.

Example: \u201cDothras Chek!\u201d \u2014 \u201cRide well! Godspeed!\u201d

9. ALIENESE

To give the world of the 31st century more realism and depth, Futurama co-creator David X. Cohen created an alien language called Alienese, which was mainly used as background graffiti and store signs for in-jokes. It was a simple substitution cipher that fans quickly decoded. This forced the writers of Futurama to create another language called Alienese II, which was math-based and more complex to figure out.

10. MONDOSHAWAN

Although it\u2019s referred to as the Divine Language, Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) speaks the Mondoshawan alien language in 1997's The Fifth Element. It\u2019s a limited language with only 300 to 400 words in total that director Luc Besson created. Jovovich had to memorize and refine the language before filming began. By the end of production, Besson and Jovovich were speaking Mondoshawan to each other between takes.

11. ATLANTEAN

\nDisney hired linguist Marc Okrand (the same linguist who created Klingon for Star Trek) to develop a living language for 2001's Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He made Atlantean as the \u201cmother language\u201d for the animated film\u2019s screenwriters and concept artists. The fictional language was derived from Indo-European words with a mix of Sumerian and North American languages. Okrand created a complex writing and language system with writer's scripts, an Atlantean alphabet, and reader's script for the Disney animated film.

12. NA'VI

James Cameron was developing Avatar for 15 years before it was released in December 2009. While Cameron was developing the filmmaking technology to bring the 3D film to fruition, he also brought on University of Southern California linguist Dr. Paul Frommer to help bring the alien culture of the Na\u2019vi to the big screen. The pair worked for months, creating a language that was a mixture of Ethiopian and New Zealand M\u0101ori languages to develop a lexicon with more than 1000 words. Since the release of Avatar, Frommer has continuously added new words and expanded the grammatical rules of Na\u2019vi on his website, so fans could learn to speak the alien language.

\u201cThe sound system has to be all nailed down first, so that there is consistency in the language,\u201d said Dr. Frommer. \u201cWhen you create a language, you experience the joy of rolling sounds around in your mouth, hearing unusual sounds, playing with the sounds and structural properties of language\u2014it\u2019s a process that took about six months for the basics,\u201d

Example: \u201cOel ngati kameie.\u201d \u2014 \u201cI see you.\u201d

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