Learning a new language is challenging, but creating a new language takes a whole other level of talent.
UBCO Professor Dr. Christine Schreyer did just that when working on the motion picture Alpha, which peaked at number 4 during its opening weekend at the box office.
The movie follows a boy and a wolf living in the ice age that get separated from their families, and form the friendship that becomes the catalyst for the relationship between humans and dogs.
Throughout the film, the language that Dr. Schreyer created, known as Beama, is spoken by the main character, Keda, and his tribe. There are also subtitles whenever this language is spoken.
Schreyer appeared on the Early Edition Tuesday morning to discuss her passion as a linguistic anthropologist.
“I love language – I’ve called myself a language fangirl on occasion,” says Schreyer. “It’s always just fun to see how the language can work and getting it to fit into the script.”
Schreyer described the many intricacies involved with the process of making a whole new language.
“The language that I was making didn’t match English exactly, so I had to think about the concepts that they were presenting in the script, and get inside these characters’ minds and think about how they would think about them.”
Schreyer also created the Kryptonian text language featured in Man of Steel back in 2013, as well as a language heard in last year’s Power Rangers movie.
Alpha hit theatres last weekend, earning $10.3 million from the box office.
Filming primarily took place in Vancouver, as well as Drumheller, Alberta.