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He referred to conlanging as his “secret vice,” and conlanger David Adger agrees that there is something “curiously satisfying, and almost addictive” about it.

He investigated and, without condoning Parisot’s lie, came to recognize a kindred spirit: an early constructor of languages, or “conlanger,” who took delight in linguistic play.

There are no hard numbers where conlangs are concerned because no one is really counting, but according to van Steenbergen—a regular visitor to online conlanger forums—they probably number in the thousands by now: “Sooner or later, they are bound to outnumber the natural languages.”

Jessie Sams, an associate linguistics professor at Stephen F. Austin State University and a conlanger, started lobbying to teach a course in the subject in 2011 — just as “Game of Thrones” began.

They reached out to the Language Creation Society, a group co-founded by Peterson — by then an enthusiastic “conlanger” or language creator.