A linguist from the University of Southern California created an entirely new language for the eagerly anticipated science-fiction film Avatar, released this month.

USC professor Paul Frommer was hired by director James Cameron, whose previous Hollywood successes include Aliens and Titanic, to develop the extra-terrestrial language of Na'vi.

 This is an alien language but obviously it has to be spoken by human actors," Frommer told the BBC.  It has to be sounds that human beings are comfortable producing."

Na'vi  certainly borrows various grammatical structures, sounds, that exist in other languages – but what I hope is that the combination in this language is unique," he continued.

The movie, which hits theatres in North America on December 18th, is set on the planet Pandora, where an epic battle between aliens and Earthlings takes place.

Frommer, who specializes in management communication, created a fully functioning language for the humanoid inhabitants of the fictional planet. It has a distinct grammar and syntax, although so far it has a vocabulary of only a thousand words.

The Professor confesses he cannot yet speak it fluently himself, but says his endeavour is ongoing. He has already spent four years working on Avatar, and the language will continue to grow as the franchise expands, with sequels and a video game in the pipeline.

The linguistic project inevitably invites comparison to the Klingon language of the TV show and film series Star Trek.

"There are Klingon clubs that meet all over the world. There are a very dedicated group of people who meet and try to speak it," said Frommer.  If anything happened like this with Na'vi I'd be delighted."

13 December 2009