Can we still talk about <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim">Skyrim</a>? I mean, I know it's been out for a while now, and a lot of people have moved on. But I'm still playing it, and enjoying the vast explorable terrain, hundreds of quests, and terrible, hilarious bugs.<br/><br/>As I've been playing, I've noticed that they've really tried to turn the production values up to eleven. The terrain feels a lot more detailed, the voice acting is improved (and there are more voice actors), the quests are more detailed and varied, and the game is sprinkled with non-human languages. Notably, the Dragon Language (spoken, obviously, by dragons, and also by the ancient Nords) and the Falmer Language (the Falmer are a race of elves who became blind underground monsters) get considerable attention in various storylines in the game.<br/><br/>But for all that attention, the actual language construction has... mixed results. And since I occasionally like to tear things apart and nit-pick them to death, I thought I'd discuss what they've done, and where it succeeds and where it fails.<br/><br/><h3>Building Imaginary Languages</h3><br/><br/>A spoken or written language that is created intentionally (as opposed to most natural languages, which develop organically) is called a <em>constructed language</em>, or <em>conlang</em>. These can be created as fictional languages (well-known examples include <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language">Klingon</a>, <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%27vi_language">Na'vi</a>, <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya">Quenya</a>) or intended to be used in the real world (<ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto">Esperanto</a>, <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solresol">Solresol</a>, <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_pona">toki pona</a>). Someone who creates constructed languages is often referred to as a <em>conlanger</em>.<br/><br/>Conlangers are often seen as eccentric nerds who are wasting their time and skill. However, they are employed with increasing frequency by big media producers who want consistent, realistic languages in their fictional universes - Klingon is an early example of this. And, of course, Tolkien is the grandfather of self-indulgent conlanging, creating at least a dozen languages, many with etymological histories, 'older' forms of the language with traceable roots, and an amazing attention to detail. Sure, he told some stories, but that was mostly just to give his languages somewhere to live.<br/><br/>Real-world conlangs are often made with optimistic and lofty goals: Esperanto (a fairly early constructed language), for example, was designed to be "an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that transcends nationality and would foster peace and international understanding between people with different regional and/or national languages" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto). So, world peace through language. Sadly, 125 years on, we still seem to have a lot of war. Likewise, toki pona is designed to "shape the thought processes of its users, in the style of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in Zen-like fashion" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona).<br/><br/>But on to Skyrim...<br/><br/><h3>The Falmer "Language"</h3><br/><br/>The Falmer language is a disappointment. I know it only comes up significantly in one quest line, but still... it's not even remotely a language of its own, just English text written with an <ahref="http://imperial-library.info/content/galluss-encoded-journal">alternate alphabet</a>. Basically, a monoalphabetic <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_cipher">substitution cipher</a>. I think I might have preferred untranslatable gibberish to this.<br/><br/>I mean, it's not that hard to whip together just enough of a constructed language for one quest. I'm not asking for much here, just something a tiny bit more sophisticated. Watch how much we can do in just a few minutes:<br/><br/>Start with the grammar. We can make arbitrary decisions here - no one's going to fault
