Avatar fan and Na'vi language

An article that I have just read, called "Avatar fan wants a girlfriend who speaks Na'vi language" mentions an interesting story. Richard Littauer, or with his Avatar name Taronyu, wants a girlfriend who can speak the Na'vi language - the language of the huge blue Na'vi people in the movie. He is a linguistics student, and he already compiled a dictionary for the language as to help other people learn it like himself. He finds the movie fascinating, particularly because it created a new language instead of using the languages that already exist. He wishes to create his own tribe of Na'vi on the earth. Littauer also wants to have a girlfriend who will share his love for the movie and living like a Na'vi - and most importantly who can speak the Na'vi language as he does.

This story definitely sounds interesting - but what sounds more interesting to me is Littauer's fondness of the language. As far as the article goes, what he is more fascinated by in this movie is the novel, original, newly discovered Na'vi language. It is so interesting to see how the idea of a newly invented language appeals to him. What I wonder is why Littauer is so excited about the creation of a new language. What makes the idea of a new language so appealing to him?

One thing that I came up with is this idea of language and the level of prestige that is attached to it. Nancy C. Dorian, a renowned anthropologist and linguist, argues that every language has a certain level of prestige. This prestige does not necessarily depend on the complexity of the grammatical structures of the language or the number of words it has in its lexicon, she says. Instead, it depends on how many people speak that language. People tend to see a language more prestigious than others if that language is being spoken by more people or, generally, is a dominant language. That is why, even though most minority languages are more complex than dominant languages such as English or Spanish, we still see the dominant ones as the most prestigious ones, because they are more widely spread and have more speakers.

This idea of prestige may not be that wrong. It just means that for most of us, what determines the prestige of a language is not its form, structures or grammar rules, but how widely spread it is.

With the article about the Avatar fan and his love for the Na'vi language, I would argue that the idea of prestige plays a great role. It is not really possible that he knows much about the grammatical structures, rules or form of the language - the language, I would argue, cannot be a very elaborate language anyway if it is invented for a movie. Undoubtedly, the movie itself made a great impact on the popular culture and lots of people around the world talked about this movie for a very long time. It was the most expensive movie when it came out, and it still is. Despite criticisms, I think that such factors and the media exposure gave this movie a lot of prestige - and the same prestige is also true for the language. It is why, I think, the Na'vi language is able to attract such a level of attention.

What do you think?

Link to article: http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/26/avatarfan-wants-a-girlfriend-who-speaks-navilanguage.html