Elvish, Klingon and Pig Latin: what can invented languages teach us about the human brain?

The Conversation · 🇦🇺 public Australia · Aug 11, 2026 · 888 words · By Inka Romero-Ortells Labrada; Jon Andoni Duñabeitia; Manuel Perea

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What to know about Elvish, Klingon and Pig Latin: what can invented languages teach us about the human brain?

The article explores the nature of invented languages, ranging from childhood games like Pig Latin and pidgins born of necessity to planned languages like Esperanto and Klingon. It also discusses neuroscience research from MIT regarding how the brain processes these languages and the use of 'miniature' languages in psycholinguistic studies.

Propaganda risk 0%

Claims checked 11

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left17%

Center66%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Invented languages tend to be the stuff of fantasy or science fiction worlds.

Why it matters

But as a child, you may have made one up yourself.

Common ground

Take Pig Latin, which involves moving the starting consonant of a word to the end and adding an “-ay” sound.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Elvish, Klingon and Pig Latin: what can invented languages teach us about the human brain??
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Klingon... Created by linguist Mark Okrand in the 1980s for the TV series Star Trek?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/elvish-klingon-and-pig-latin-what-can-invented-langu…

analyticsAnalysis

Propaganda Score

confidence: 100%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 11 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

verified Verified By Reference 4

check_circle Corroborated 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

info Single Source 1

schedule Pending 1

verified

Claim 1: “Klingon... Created by linguist Mark Okrand in the 1980s for the TV series Star Trek”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia confirms that linguist Marc Okrand created the Klingon language for the Star Trek franchise, with the primary dictionary published in 1985.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Klingon language (Klingon: tlhIngan Hol, pIqaD:  , pronounced [ˈt͡ɬɪ.ŋɑn xol]) is the constructed language spoken by a fictional alien race called the Klingons in the Star Trek universe. D…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Klingon scripts are fictional alphabetic scripts used in the Star Trek movies and television shows to write the Klingon language. In Marc Okrand's The Klingon Dictionary, the Klingon script is cal…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_scripts

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Marc Okrand (; born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. His professional work is in Native American languages, and he is well known as the creator of the Klingon language in the Star Trek science f…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Okrand

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 2: “Okrand used unusual sounds and a confusing object–verb–subject sentence structure [for Klingon].”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence confirms Klingon is a constructed language by Marc Okrand, but the specific search results provided do not mention the 'object-verb-subject' (OVS) sentence structure.

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web search NEUTRAL — Two Klingon men and a Klingon woman as they appear in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Day of the Dove". The bronzed skin, facial hair, lack of ridged foreheads, and simple costumes are typ…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon

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web search NEUTRAL — The Klingon language (Klingon: tlhIngan Hol, pIqaD: , pronounced [ˈt͡ɬɪ.ŋɑn xol]) is the constructed language spoken by a fictional alien race called the Klingons in the Star Trek universe. Described …
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language

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web search NEUTRAL — Klingons (tlhIngan in Klingonese) were a humanoid warrior species that originated from the planet Qo'noS (pronounced Kronos), an M-class planet in the Beta Quadrant. One of the major powers of the gal…
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Klingon

verified

Claim 3: “Esperanto, a language created in 1887 by LL Zamenhof.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and multiple web sources confirm that L.L. Zamenhof created Esperanto and published it in 1887.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Esperanto (; Esperanto: [espeˈranto]) is the world's most widely spoken constructed auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 as 'the International Language' (la Lingvo Internacia), it is …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — L. L. Zamenhof (1859–1917) was the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language. Zamenhof published Esperanto in 1887, although his initial ideas date back …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Proto-Esperanto (Esperanto: Pra-Esperanto) is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhof's language project, prior to the publication of Unua Libro in 1887.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Esperanto

+ 3 more evidence sources

help

Claim 4: “In psycholinguistics, miniature languages are often created to study how the human mind learns.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided in the search results regarding the use of 'miniature languages' in psycholinguistics.

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Claim 5: “Pig Latin, which involves moving the starting consonant of a word to the end and adding an “-ay” sound... words beginning with a vowel have a “-way” at the end.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources describe the mechanics of Pig Latin, including moving the initial consonant to the end and adding a suffix, and specifically mention adding 'way' or 'yay' for words starting with vowels.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Pig Latin is a language game or cant in which words are altered by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and addi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin

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web search NEUTRAL — Pig Latin is a playful way to transform English words by moving leading consonants or adding a vowel suffix. Use this translator to encode or decode Pig Latin instantly.
https://www.boxentriq.com/encodings/pig-latin

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web search NEUTRAL — For words starting with a vowel, just add "yay," "way," or "ay" to the end of the word. So "ant" could become "ant-yay." Practice with someone else and speak slowly while you're getting the hang of th…
https://www.wikihow.com/Speak-Pig-Latin

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Claim 6: “When fluent speakers used invented languages (such as Esperanto, Klingon, the Na’vi language from Avatar, and High Valyrian or Dothraki from Game of Thrones), the brain activated the same neural networks as for a natural language.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web sources confirm that fluent speakers of invented languages (Esperanto, Klingon, Na'vi, High Valyrian, Dothraki) activate the same neural networks as they do for natural languages.

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web search NEUTRAL — When fluent speakers used invented languages (such as Esperanto, Klingon, the Na'vi language from Avatar, and High Valyrian or Dothraki from Game of Thrones), the brain activated the same neural netwo…
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-elvish-klingon-pig-latin-langu…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — MIT research finds the brain’s language-processing network also responds to artificial languages such as Esperanto and languages made for TV, such as Klingon on “Star Trek” and High Valyrian and Dothr…
https://news.mit.edu/2025/esperanto-klingon-appear-same-engl…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — We’ve seen the invention of Dothraki and High Valyrian for HBO’s Game of Thrones, spoken and sign languages for the recent Dune remake, and bloodsucker-speak for Vampire Academy, to name only a handfu…
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/avata…

verified

Claim 7: “The word pidgin is thought to have emerged from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word business.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While Wikipedia confirms the existence of 'Chinese Pidgin English', none of the provided evidence sources explicitly state that the word 'pidgin' originated from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word 'business'.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A Chinese–English Dictionary (1892), compiled by the British consular officer and sinologist Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), is the first Chinese–English encyclopedic dictionary. Giles started compil…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Chinese–English_Dictionary

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Chinese Pidgin English (Cantonese: 廣東番話) (also called Chinese Coastal English, Pigeon English, or China Coast Pidgin) was a pidgin language lexically based on English, but influenced by a Chinese subs…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Pidgin_English

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In China, letters of the English alphabet are pronounced somewhat differently because they have been adapted to the phonetics (i.e. the syllable structure) of the Chinese language. The knowledge of th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_respelling_of_the_Engl…

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 8: “One such example is the Elvish languages created by Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit author JRR Tolkien.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and other sources explicitly confirm that J.R.R. Tolkien created the Elvish languages for his Middle-earth legendarium, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of all the published works of the English writer and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien, including works published posthumously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien_bibliography

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Tolkien fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially of the Middle-earth legendarium which includes The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Si…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_fandom

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have served as the inspiration to painters, musicians, film-makers and writers, to such an extent that he is sometimes seen as the "father" of the entire genre of high fa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_inspired_by_Tolkien

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 9: “people’s ability to learn these made-up languages can quite accurately predict their ability to learn real ones.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 10: “programming languages do not – despite their clear rules and structure – activate the same brain areas [as natural or invented languages].”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided in the search results regarding the brain activity of people using programming languages compared to natural or invented languages.

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Claim 11: “a 2025 study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) took functional magnetic resonance images of brain activity in people who spoke [invented languages].”

CORROBORATED

Web search results explicitly mention MIT research using fMRI to find that the brain's language-processing network responds to artificial languages like Esperanto and Klingon. While the specific '2025' date is not explicitly tied to the study in the snippets, the study's existence and MIT's involvement are corroborated.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On December 13, 2025, a mass shooting occurred at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, during the second day of final examination week for the fall semester. The shooter, Cláud…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Brown_University_shooting

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts few restrictions on reuse and has hi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nuno Filipe Gomes Loureiro (1977 – 16 December 2025) was a Portuguese plasma physicist. He was the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and director …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Loureiro

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.