An 18-year-old girl has developed a new language she calls Skénavánns. Melissa May has so far come up with 1,500 words and a 50-page dictionary for her original creation but she's the only one who can speak or understand it.
According to MDaily Mirror, May is a talented linguist who is fluent in speaking European languages like French, German and Spanish. She can also read Portuguese, Norwegian, Italian, Swedish and Danish texts.
May also studied old languages like Latin and Norse and she is currently learning Chinese while intending to attend Cambridge University. With all her skills and talent, May still found the time and motivation to develop Skénavánns. The news outlet describes the 18-year-old as a budding J.R.R. Tolkien, the famous author of the classic novels "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit."
Tolkien is known for creating unique languages for his stories and he based this on known languages like Latin, according to the Ardalambion. The intellectual author also invented words that are now part of the English language, according to Oxford. Will May's work one day be found in commonly used languages as well?
May said she has no end goal for creating a new language but only that she loves what she's doing. "It's an artistic venture and language creation is an art," she told Daily Mirror.
This is not her first shot at creating language, though. She's first tried this at age 11 after reading Tolkien and watching the movie "Avatar."
Her father, Derek May, says May might not have a practical sense of other things, such as figuring out how a TV works. Her process of words, however, is astounding.
In school, May exceeded expectations in language classes. She can absorb lessons from a two-year language course in as short as three months.
May said her work on Skénavánns is far from over, however. She will develop it some more in the next few years.
