“Constructing and translating artlangs: From J.R.R. Tolkien and Anthony Burgess to Star Wars”

The creation of artificial languages represents an important mechanism in the construction of alternative realities, both within the “arts” (namely literature and cinema) and within specific socio-cultural contexts which, as suggested below, could develop beyond and above strictly national boundaries. Because of this, both their creation and their translation should be addressed as important linguistic, cultural and social phenomena, which certainly deserve critical attention. This article therefore aims to analyse, albeit briefly, the way some of the artificial and constructed languages have been translated throughout the years. In particular, as suggested in my title, in order to bring to the fore the result of the translators’ effort and identify some of the strategies which could prove useful when approaching this kind of translation, this article is going to focus on some of the idioms created for what could be defined as the founding works of fantasy and science fiction: Tolkien’s Elvish, Anthony Burgess’s Nadsat and some of the languages from the Star Wars saga.