During some movie scenes, you would hear obscure gibberish and not have a second thought to its meaning, providing you have those all-important subtitles to make sense of it. However, these terms are meaningful linguistics either finding their way to human vocabulary or already existing.
Fictional languages have evolved, and can especially be learned and featured in human discourse. Some may still be developing, but many out there are developed fictional languages suitable for any context.
Preply, the online language tutors, recently analysed the five most popular fictional languages. The survey takes a comparative study of speakers, learners, inspirations and word count to determine the fantasy world with the best-recognised language.
The Public Seeking Fictional Dialect
Navigating to https://preply.com/en/d/fictional-languages, you’d learn that Elvish is the most popular fictional language, following Preply. It boasts 7,000 words, 19,100 estimated monthly searches, and 33,854 Twitter mentions. Its popularity score, according to the survey, is 59,954.
Considering that more people now speak Elvish than Irish questions whether online learning has gone too far. Well, it seems the good old Irish is dwindling in popularity compared to the evergreen fantasy Elvish.
Following Babbel’s study, speakers of the Irish language are estimated at 1.2 million. Moreover, merely 170,000 speak Irish as a first language and around 98 per cent of Irish speakers reside in Ireland.
Hobbit Enthusiasts Spend Thousands
David Neary (26), a core Lord of the Rings follower and a Ballsbridge freelance journalist, Dublin, reportedly spent about €2,000 (£1,710) on Middle-earth memorabilia, including hosting the Lord of the Rings marathon, 11 hours of Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy, for fellow Frodo fans yearly.
Neary says he first read The Hobbit on holidays at 13 and became an extreme fan. Thereafter, he proceeded with the sequels immediately, Independent.ie.
“Between books, DVDs, screenings, and collectables, I’ve spent around €2,000 following Lord of the Rings over the years,” says Neary. “From logging on to fan forums to quoting obscure references from the films, I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I’m a Tolkien nerd – it never hurts my chances with the ladies. And whenever someone scoffs, I simply remind them that more people in the world speak Elvish than Irish!” He added.
Meanwhile, Liv Tyler mentions in the LOTR documentary that many people can speak Tolkien’s Elvish language. It’s not much of a difficult language to learn after all, and Tyler has lots of answers in the documentary.
Aside from the ease of learning a fictional language online, many can speak Elvish comfortably. And it’s not so challenging, especially if they’ve practiced the pronunciations for a while. They can equally ace the fictional grammar off papers.
Nonetheless, merely a few people speak Elvish – fluently or decently. Lots of fellows from Elfing (Tolkien language society) can speak Elvish practised online, but not many would speak this fictional language with no handy text.
So, if we’re assessing the boundary online ficlang learning extends across, we’d want to do well to establish whether most learners can actually pronounce many Elvish words. People need to memorise some lines, which is not impossible, and speak them as fluently as they would speak natural languages.
Unfortunately, it can’t be the case entirely because of limited learning materials. Besides, learners often want to consult the written text often online.
Lockdown Leads To Language Learning
Are learners spending so much to learn Elvish? The COVID19-forced lockdown motivated an increased online language learning, evident in Duolingo’s recorded 30 per cent increase, following their support of online classrooms.
Professor Katrin Kohl (40), a languages teacher at the University of Oxford, says, “Language apps do give you control over your learning and are very good at giving you a sense of success repeatedly.”
Clearly, the educational system seems to set the teacher and students to fail regardless of the effort.
Moreover, Kohl, the Principal Investigator of Oxford university’s Creative Multilingualism programme, continues that “getting to a high level of proficiency just with apps is difficult, but the education system needs to be revised”.
The revision could be designed to teach language skills in contrast with focusing on examination passing skills.
Experts believe that a post lockdown era with classroom language learning aided by applications would be excellent. The complexities of language might threaten the course, but language apps can help to restore confidence.
Enrolling in a fictional or natural language learning program online affords you the flexibility to adjust between schedules at liberty. Moreover, combining home obligations, professional jobs, or any venture with online language learning does not restrict convenience.
Ultimately, online access tends to hasten the language learning process, largely because of creative learning space flexibility. A learner can stick vocabulary notes, draw or write on dedicated spots for simpler reference.
If you reside with other people, you can habituate teaching the people around you. And this practice broadens your language learning horizon from your comfort zone.
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