By Aylin Aarhus
On April 11-13, the University of Maryland welcomed the 11th Language Creation Conference, held by the Language Creation Society (LCS).
LCS is dedicated to constructed languages, or conlangs — languages created by a person or small group, rather than those arising naturally from a culture.
John H. G. Scott, a lecturer from UMD’s School of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures, kicked off the event with his talk, “(De)Constructing Culture through Constructed Languages: U-Boots in Space, Decolonizing our Fantasies, and Transgressing Taboo on Naboo.”
Scott’s talk included a brief history of constructed languages, which began nearly a millennium ago with the first documented conlang, Lingua Ignota, created by Hildegard von Bingen circa 1150 C.E.
Some of the most famous conlangs arise from pop culture. Klingon, created by linguist Marc Okrand for the“Star Trek” franchise, has over 3,000 words, a complex grammar system and its own course on Duolingo. Other well-known fictional languages include Na’vi, the conlang featured in the 2009 blockbuster “Avatar” and Newspeak from George Orwell’s “1984.”
But the world of conlangs extends beyond fantasy and science fiction. Some conlangs, like Esperanto, were created to help native speakers of different languages communicate. Others function as social commentary, philosophical exercises or simply as fun personal projects.
According to The Conlang Database, there are over 800 existing conlangs, with more in the works.
“This is not a small community,” Scott said. “It’s just that we’re spread wide.”
The conference also incorporated musical performances and poetry. Margaret Ransdell-Green, the president of LCS, performed in several languages from her fantasy world, Aeniith, accompanied by Eric Barker on the keys. Their performance included the song “Síta Lorín” or “Beware the Normal,” the concept of which came to Barker in a dream.
“Beware the normies!” Barker said, to applause from the audience.
The conference featured a Conlang Relay, where participants translated a written text into their own conlang and passed it onto the next person in a lengthy game of telephone. There was also a Conpidgin Formation Workshop, where attendees, all speaking different languages, attempted to build a new conlang without the help of translation. This was meant to mimic a pidgin language, which arises when groups that don’t share a common language try to communicate.
Presentations at the conference included explorations of a wide range of conlangs, from Tjugem, an entirely whistled language made by Logan Kearsely, to Interstellar Common, an alien language created by astrophysicist Alex Howe.
Sheri Wells-Jensen, a professor of Linguistics at Bowling Green State University who is also blind, gave a talk on braille and other tactile spelling systems. There were also six talks on signed conlangs, plus a meetup for ASL signers.
Devyn Boer, a recently graduated linguistics student, appreciated the conference’s inclusion of disability in conlanging.
“I am not blind or deaf, but I am disabled, and so the accessibility side of language is something that is really interesting,” Boer said. “It was really cool to hear about some things that I had never heard of.”
You can find recordings of presentations from the conference on LCS’s YouTube channel, @FiatLingua, or find out more about the organization at conlang.org.
Featured Image: Margaret Ransdell-Green, president of the Language Creation Society, presents at the 11th Language Creation Conference’s Pre-Conference Welcome Social, April 11, 2025. Photo by Aylin Aarhus.