10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Atlantis: The Lost Empire
3. Atlantean Is A Real Language
It’s extremely rare for any movie, let alone a Disney flick, to inspire an entire language. But a lot of careful thought and detail went into the Atlantean speech thanks to experienced linguist Marc Okrand, who also created the Klingon language for the Star Trek franchise. It’s an impressive detail of the movie, which is also greatly overlooked.
The written Atlantean language is to be read left to right on the first line, and then the next time read right to left, continuing this cycle. The purpose of this was to create a flowing, water-like movement, suggestive of the Atlantean culture.
Because of the well-crafted dialogue, Cree Summer (Kida) had the most difficult acting performance of the cast, as she had to speak Atlantean with complete fluency. She also had to make her English sound slightly broken or "off", despite it actually being her first language in real life.