When he was a student in linguistics and English at the University of California, Berkeley, David Peterson worked on a secret language for two months. It was called “Megdevi”. This was an amalgam of both his own name and Megan, his girlfriend at the time. Once satisfied with his new words and grammar rules, he presented it to her. It was his grand romantic gesture: a private language they could use to communicate only with each other.戴维彼得森(David Peterson)在美国加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)自学语言学和英文时，花上两个月时间发明者了一种秘密语言，给它取名为“梅戴语”(Megdevi)——这是大卫和他当时的女友梅甘(Megan)名字的结合体。待新词和语法规则令其他失望后，他将成果展出给女友。这是他送达的一份十分爱情的爱情大礼：一种只在他俩之间用于的偷窥语言。“We didn’t use it”, the 33-year-old admits today, 15 years later. While Megan appreciated the effort, she did not want to learn the language. “It was far too much work.” Now married to someone else, he is more agitated about the technical shortcomings of Megdevi, describing it as “an abomination”. He laments: “It tried to be a bunch of different things at once and ended up being nothing.”不过15年后，33岁的彼得森否认：“我们没用过它。

”梅甘虽然赞许了他的希望，但并想自学这门语言。“过于费力了。

”如今，已嫁给别人为妻的彼得森对“梅戴语”的技术缺失更加烦躁，称之为之“令人讨厌”。他忘道：“它想要一次构建许多个目标，结果沦落一无是处。

”Back then he was under the illusion he was the first person to create a language just for himself. “I thought I’d cornered the market and there would be demand for invented languages.” Later, when he searched the internet, he saw there were legions of people just like him, picking holes in grammar rules and admiring the poetry of their new lexicons in chat rooms around the world.当时，他还以为自己是头一个为自己建构一门语言的人。“我以为自己不会垄断市场，人们对新的语言的发明者不会有市场需求。”后来，他在网上搜寻后找到，世界上有许多像他这样的人，他们在聊天室里给语法规则挑毛病，喜爱用自己新发明的词汇写的诗歌。The invention of new languages has a rich history. Some have a political purpose such as Esperanto, created in the 19th century to foster peace, or the feminist Láadan, created in 1982. Another, Toki Pona, uses positive words to engender positive thinking.新的语言的发明者史丰富多彩。

一些语言具有政治目的，例如，发明者于19世纪的世界语(Esperanto)是为了增进和平，发明者于1982年的拉丹语(Láadan)具有女权主义色彩。还有一种道本语(Toki Pona)，这种语言用于大力词汇，以希望大力思维。Today Mr Peterson is a professional “conlanger” – the name that those who construct languages give to themselves. What transformed his hobby into a trade was the growing desire by television and film producers to infuse science fiction and fantasy dramas with authenticity, including completely fabricated and naturalistic languages. Fans scrutinise the languages, sharing inconsistencies on Twitter and discussion forums.如今，彼得森是职业的“语言设计师”(conlanger)——那些独创语言的人以此有别。

他的嗜好缘何变为职业？这是因为科幻和奇幻类影视剧制片商更加执着在剧中营造一种真实感，还包括建构几乎虚构的自然主义语言。影迷剧迷们对这些语言的研究细致入微，还在Twitter和论坛上共享剧中语言的破绽。Mr Peterson’s big break was Game of Thrones, the lavish HBO drama, which next month starts its fourth season.彼得森的重大突破是《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)。这部HBO的奢华大剧下月将播出第4季。

In 2008, after completing a masters in linguistics and teaching English at a community college, Mr Peterson found himself unemployed. He entered a competition set by the Game of Thrones producers for members of the Language Creation Society, a group he had co-founded, to promote, discuss and deconstruct invented languages.2008年，在修完语言学硕士学位、并在一所社区学院教授了一段时间的英语之后，彼得森失业了。他参与了《权力的游戏》制片商面向“语言建构协会”(Language Creation Society)会员成立的一场竞赛。彼得森是协会的牵头创始人之一，协会宗旨是推展、辩论和解构人造语言。The group was invited to devise a language – Dothraki – for the show. He won both rounds – the first, judged by his peers, the second by the television executives. It changed his working life.协会应邀为电视剧设计一门语言——多斯拉克语(Dothraki)。

他在两轮比赛中均告落败——第一轮是会员评审，第二轮是电视制片方评审。这转变了他的职业道路。Unlike previous languages he had worked on, Dothraki had some basics already in place. George RR Martin, author of the five volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, the fantasy saga on which the TV series is based, had created some words already. By analysing these, he fleshed it out to create a “naturalistic” language, reflecting the feudal pseudo-Mongolian society’s preoccupations. There are, for example, seven different words in Dothraki for striking with a sword. These include: “hlizikh”, a wild but powerful strike; and “kolverikh”, a straight sword thrust.与他之前设计的语言有所不同，多斯拉克语早已不具备了一些基本成分。电视剧根据魔幻传奇小说《冰与火之歌》(A Song of Ice and Fire)五部曲改篇，小说作者乔治马丁(George RR Martin)早已建构了一些单词。

彼得森对单词展开了分析，为它们添枝加叶，建构出有了一门“自然主义”语言，并体现出有那个虚构的蒙古封建社会更加注目哪些方面。例如，在多斯拉克语中，有7个单词可以形容使剑的动作，比如，“hlizifikh”指背离目标但非常有力的一击,“kolverikh”形容笔直的一螫。

While Mr Martin has insisted he did not pay attention to linguistic rules, Mr Peterson believes the author has a “natural language affinity”. Typically, he says, fantasy writers “do a terrible job”. Their languages are inconsistent and merely bastardised English.虽然马丁否认自己未故意注目语言学规则，但彼得森指出他很有“建构语言的天赋”。彼得森回应，魔幻作家建构的语言一般来说“是一团糟”，不仅漏洞百出，而且往往只不过是换回了个样子的英语。

By the start of the first season, Mr Peterson had created 1,700 words and now has added another 2,000. He has set a goal of 10,000, though he has become derailed by working on other science fiction and fantasy projects.到第一季开始播映时，彼得森早已发明者了1700个单词，如今又新创了2000个单词。他将目标设于1万个，但眼下其他科幻和魔幻方面的项目开始集中他的精力。

He records every line that he writes in Dothraki so that actors can learn how to pronounce the words. Actors do a pretty good job, he says, although when he sees the final product he often cringes (mistakes are made, he says, by editors and directors who do not have an ear for his language and might choose a clip best left on the cutting floor).他将自己写的每一句多斯拉克语台词都记了下来，以便演员自学发音。他说道，演员们习得不俗，但剪辑好的最后成品经常让他深感十分不得已（他说道，错误都出有在剪辑师和编剧那里，他们不懂多斯拉克语，往往把本应当剪去的片段留给。

）Originally Mr Peterson’s goal had been to become an English teacher in high school. While an undergraduate at Berkeley, Mr Peterson, who is half-Mexican and speaks Spanish, studied different languages for fun: basic Arabic, a term of Russian. At his mother’s suggestion he learnt linguistics, which sparked his interest in language creation.彼得森最初的目标是当一名高中英文教师。在伯克利读本科时，有一半墨西哥血统、不会说道西班牙语的彼得森出于兴趣自学过有所不同语言。

他习过一点阿拉伯文，还习了一学期的俄文。在母亲的建议下，他开始自学语言学，这唤起了他对建构语言的兴趣。Once he started he realised there was no chance he would ever stop. “It’s addictive,” he says. He has always had tunnel vision when it comes to his personal passions. When he was very young it was drawing, then writing, until he became focused on languages.他发现自己的研究一发不可收拾。

他回应：“这不会让人成瘾。”他对自己的兴趣向来十分投放。小时候他爱好者过绘画，然后是文学创作，最后，他的兴趣集中于到了语言学上。

The work satisfies the mathematical side of his brain, he says, by trying to “solve the problem of communication”. But it is also artistic. “Filling out a lexicon means filling out the back story. It is not purely mechanical.”他回应，尝试“解决问题交流的问题”，符合了他头脑中的数学一面。但这一工作也具备艺术性。

“填上一个词语，意味著填上一段历史。这不是纯粹机械的工作。”The transformational moment for conlangers was Klingon. Marc Okrand, a linguist, was hired to create a language for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Klingons had largely spoken English in the original Star Trek television series), which was released in 1984.语言设计师的转折点是克林贡语(Klingon)。语言学家马克奥克兰德(Marc Okrand)聘为为1984年公映的《星际变形金刚3：石破天惊》(Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)建构一门新的语言（在《星际变形金刚》原版电视剧中，克林贡人主要说道英语）。

Later came James Cameron’s science fiction extravaganza, Avatar. For that the director hired Paul Frommer, a linguistics expert from the University of Southern California, to create the Na’vi language spoken by a 10-foot-tall alien tribe.之后是詹姆斯卡梅隆(James Cameron)的科幻巨制《阿凡达》(Avatar)。卡梅隆聘用了美国南加州大学(University of Southern California)的语言学专家保罗弗罗默(Paul Frommer)，为片中10英尺高的外星人——纳威人(Navi)——建构一门纳威语。

Professor Frommer’s modus operandi includes determining the sound of the language (deciding which sounds are included and pronunciation rules); the morphology (word-building rules); and the syntax (rules for combining words into phrases and sentences). It was also important to plan how the Na’vi culture would be reflected in the language.弗罗默教授的工作方法还包括，确认该语言的发音（要求取哪些音素，以及确认发音规则）、词形（构词法）以及句法（如何将词语人组为短语和句子）。在语言设计中将该语言对纳威文化的体现考虑到转入，这也是很最重要的一点。

Good language creators, Prof Frommer says, have a deep understanding of linguistic principles; knowledge of a wide variety of languages; sensitivity to the interplay between language, culture and environment; imagination and a clear idea of purpose – how and why will the language be used. Without a goal, Mr Peterson says, a language is “a jumble, with choices made seemingly at random”.弗罗默回应，杰出的语言设计师熟谙语言学规则，通晓多门语言，留意语言、文化、环境的相互作用，想象力非常丰富，并且目标明晰，即对这门语言的用于方式以及目的心中有数。彼得森回应，没目的性的语言将“乱七八糟，样子随便重新组合一起的一样”。Science fiction and fantasy films inspire fierce devotion. Some fans have tattoos using the writing system Mr Peterson created for the sci-fi TV series Defiance. “That blows my mind,” he says.科幻和魔幻电影引起了疯狂的跟随。有的影迷在纹身时用于了彼得森为科幻电视剧《抗争》(Defiance)建构的语言文字。

“这让我很兴奋，”彼得森说道。Video games should be a rich source of work yet developers care more about the artwork and gaming than linguistic consistency, he says. However, he makes an exception for one game in development, which he declines to name.彼得森回应，电子游戏本不应是语言设计师大显身手的舞台，但开发商更加注目艺术效果和游戏体验，而不是语言的严密性。他回应有一款正在研发的游戏是个值得注意，不过他不愿透漏游戏名称。

Professional linguists can be rather sniffy about conlangers, although Prof Frommer insists conlangs “can serve as laboratories to test ideas about language”. Mr Peterson, who believes linguistic construction should be taught at school, sees television’s use of conlangs as educational. “People are coming to linguistics because they are interested in my work.”专业的语言学家可能会看不起语言设计师，但弗罗默教授坚决指出人造语言“可以作为测试语言理念的实验室”。彼得森指出学校应当教授建构语言的学问，在他显然，电视节目对人造语言的用于起着了教育起到。“人们因为对我的工作感兴趣，开始认识语言学。

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