Design intentions and actual perception of fictional languages: Quenya, Sindarin and Na’vi

This chapter presents an empirical account of fictional language creation, through a comparative analysis of three popular conlangs. Taking a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach, Beinhoff investigates audience perceptions of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin, and Paul Frommer’s Na’vi, designed for James Cameron’s (2009) blockbuster movie Avatar. Beinhoff’s findings offer new insights into the phonaesthetics of fictional languages, highlighting the ways in which real readers and listeners respond to invented languages, and charting the correlation between language design and language effects.