The Language of the Time Lords: A linguistic study on the effect of invented languages on the social hierarchy of fandom communities

Cory Taylor

Constructed languages or conlangs are consciously created for many reasons, including the exploration of new ideas, finding an alternative way to communicate or to connect with others. This connection is also a reason why many people join fan communities, places where many of these conlangs are used. BBC’s “Doctor Who” is a popular television show that is celebrated within some of these fandoms. The language of the main character’s home planet is Gallifreyan, seen at various points throughout the show. Although seen in written form, Gallifreyan has never been contextualized within the show. The first objective of this paper was to establish why and how conlangs are created, done through a review of the literature already published on the subject. The second was to examine why…