In honor of the linguistic work in Avatar, Beyond Words has compiled a shortlist of films that feature invented languages, and a brief discussion of the linguistic research behind each one: Paul Frommer’s Na’vi Languageįor the indigenous Na’vi of the planet Pandora, James Cameron wanted to create a “complete and consistent” language that sounded both pleasing and alien, but was learnable by the human actors who would be required to speak it.
Among the ten films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, one prompted a lot of discussion amongst language professionals: James Cameron’s Avatar, which features the fictional language, Na’vi.
