It’s time to explore, yet again, the wonderful world of constructed languages (conlang) from books and movies. This time around our Day Translations blog explores the very interesting and engaging film from Disney, John Carter and the Barsoomian language!
John Carter is an adaptation of the novel, ‘Princess of Mars’, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film, directed by Andrew Stanton is science fiction in nature and has an early 1800’s timeline.
Our post today explores the storyline of John Carter and the Barsoomian language. So let’s get right into it.
John Carter – The Storyline
The film begins on the planet of Barsoom where Zodanga and Helium (both great cities on the planet) are at war. Barsoom is the planet of Mars, which is also referred to as the Red Planet.
In the real world, Mars is an air-less, dry and desolate place with no water or known life form, or so we think. Barsoom is the name of Mars in the Barsoomian language.
We are introduced to John Carter in the year 1881 in New York City on earth. He is a Civil War Veteran who after losing his wife and daughter to a terrible fire, becomes consumed with his research and his quest for his ‘cave of gold’.
Expedition Time!
During one of his expeditions, John finds a cave and when he enters he meets up on a ‘Thern’. He shoots the Thern and interacts with the Thern’s medallion. Before dying, the Thern whispers something in the Barsoomian language which he repeats and it is then teleported to Barsoom. The adventure of John’s life begins on Barsoom. He is exposed to the different species and cities on the planet and becomes entangled in the ongoing war between the Cities of Zodanga and Helium.
John’s main task becomes helping the Princess of Helium, Deja Thoris, save the city of Helium by preventing her marriage to Sab Than of Zodanga. John eventually accomplishes this task and proposes marriage to the Princess which she happily accepts. John is now happily married and living on Barsoom and decides to do away with the medallion.
The film culminates with John being transcribed back to earth by a Thern. While the activities are taking place on Barsoom, John had his nephew Ned on Earth helping him to recover another medallion which he uses to return to Barsoom to be with his bride.
The Barsoomian Language
When John arrives on the planet of Barsoom, he is discovered by the Tharks. They are humanoid beings on the planet. One Thark in particular tries to communicate with John, but he doesn’t understand him because he is speaking Barsoomian.
On the planet of Barsoom, all inhabitants speak the same language, that of Barsoomian, no matter the city.
The Barsoomian language was constructed by Paul Frommer, who is also responsible for creating the Na’vi language in the movie Avatar. The language has a broad vocabulary based on the scenes where the Tharks communicate extensively with John Carter. Barsoomian is made up of mostly lexical words. Interestingly, it is said that within the Barsoomian language, numbers do not exist and the construct of the language does not allow for numerical values.
Needless to say, the Barsoomian language has a fan base that continues to explore and add to the language’s vocabulary and maintain an active Barsoomian community.
With this in mind, we’ll now explore a few words and phrases from the Barsoomian language so that you too can be speaking Barssomian in no time.
Barsoomian English
Sak To jump or jump
Apt The word used to describe the large blind white ape
Banth ‘ Lion’ would be the English equivalent of this word
Dor Translates to mean Valley of Heaven/ Valley of ISS
Haad A martian mile
Iss us The goddess of Death
Jed King
Jed Dak Emperor
Kaor A greeting used by the Red Martians
Thark The name of both a city and species on Mars
Thern A priest who is a follower of Iss us
Thoat A green martian’s ‘horse’/ steed
Dotar Sojat The martian name given to John Carter
Of course, there are so many other words and phrases that make up the Barsoomian language, but these were just a few to help you get started.
Wrapping Up
We hope our explorations into the world of John Carter and our look at the Barsooimian language has broadened your perspective on the massive and very active world of constructed languages.
These languages may not be considered as real but they have active fan bases and growing online communities dedicated to expanding the vocabulary and learning to speak the language. Of course, the Barsoomian language is no different.
That said, the Day Translations team is here to provide you with all your translation and on-demand interpreting needs. Visit our website or download the Day Interpreting app to get started today.
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