What might language have sounded like 20,000 years ago?
If you see Alpha screening at your local movie theatre, that乌鸦传媒檚 your chance to find out.
Christine Schreyer, an associate professor of anthropology at UBC Okanagan, created a 乌鸦传媒渃onstructed language乌鸦传媒� for the historical adventure drama film set during the Upper Paleolithic period.
The movie follows the journey of a young hunter in what is now Europe who befriends an injured wolf during the Ice Age.
Producers reached out to Schreyer, who is an expert on language creation and helping communities revitalize Indigenous languages, to create a couple of test scenes for the movie.
She spent the day on the Vancouver set with lead actor Kodi Smit-McPhee.
The film executives were so on board with her new language that they tasked her with creating dialogue for the whole 90-minute film.
Schreyer admitted it was a challenge.
乌鸦传媒淣obody really knows what was spoken 20,000 years ago because we don乌鸦传媒檛 have fossils of language,乌鸦传媒� she said.
乌鸦传媒淚 did research on proto-languages 乌鸦传媒� those are estimated languages, for the approximate time range of the movie, which included Proto-Nostratic, Proto-Eurasiatic, and Proto-Den茅-Caucasian. It乌鸦传媒檚 a case of taking those related languages and estimating them back in time, with a little creative licence as well.乌鸦传媒�
It乌鸦传媒檚 not the first time Schreyer乌鸦传媒檚 been picked to develop ways of speaking for Hollywood blockbusters.
She helped develop the Kryptonian language for 2013乌鸦传媒檚 Man of Steel, and she made up Eltarian, which is used in the 2017 Power Rangers movie.
She also teaches a class that examines other created languages such as Star Trek乌鸦传媒檚 Klingon and 础惫补迟补谤乌鸦传媒檚 狈补乌鸦传媒檝颈.
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