6 Film and TV Languages You Can Actually Speak

You say it best when you say it in Jabba the Hutt's native tongue.

By Ashleigh Millman /

The world is full of strange, secret languages that people make up - sending messages coded in Pig Latin or Morse code for an extra level of privacy. Maybe even American English if they really want to confuse people.

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And in the same way, making up entirely new worlds populated by strange species and miraculous creatures isn't quite enough for filmmakers, taking it one step further to embellish an entirely new language for their weird-looking beasties that only the most committed of fans will endeavour to learn. Don't want to embarrass yourself at Games Workshop for not knowing the latest Elvish, of course.

Adding wonderfully diverse layers to fantasy lands and far-reaching galaxies, these films and TV shows created a special kind of communication that can actually be applied to real life - fleshing out fully realised native tongues you can actually learn and speak in. Whether it's channeling the dark lord in the Parseltongue of Harry Potter or insulting trekkies the world over in Klingon, there’s directors out there who’ve made something for everyone, if only to REALLY prove your fandom.

Hab SoSlI' Quch, my dudes.

6. Futurama: Alienese

Written in as a running joke throughout the series and as a way of adding depth to the 31st Century, the aptly titled 'Alienese' is that weird symbolic language you see scribbled about Futurama as graffiti, devised by one of the show's creators David X. Cohen.

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Wonder how long it took them to come up with a name for it? Simply swapping out normal English letters for a squiggly counterpart, it took fans all of half an hour to figure out the code from Futurama's premiere, resulting in the team creating Alienese II.

Packing it full of maths equations rather than good old fashioned counting on your fingers, it's much more work to get the in-jokes now. Rewarding? Probably not. It just sounds like cheating, really.

In any case, if you want to send some letters in the intergalactic equivalent of alphabetti spaghetti, here's the language for you.

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