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Ch’owatlok language

Ch’owatlok
Ch’owatlok, Choangal ohliiwa
Pronunciation	[t͡ʃ’owɐˈt͡ɬok], [t͡ʃoɐ̯ŋɐl oˈɬiːwɐ]
Created by	Tobias Mosbæk Søborg (ca. 2020–2023)
Setting and usage	Fictional language of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the Ertebølle culture in Denmark at the turn of the Neolithic Revolution, ca. 4000 BCE, as featured in the movie Stranger
Purpose	constructed languages artistic languages fictional languages Ch’owatlok
Writing system	none (in-universe) Latin script
Sources	constructed languages  a priori languages
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	none
Glottolog	None
IETF	none

The Ch’owatlok language (pronounced [t͡ʃ’owɐt͡ɬok]) is a fictional constructed language originally made for the 2024 film Stranger. In the movie, the language is spoken by a local hunter-gatherer tribe, identifiable with the archaeological Ertebølle culture. The language was created by Tobias Søborg, a historical linguist with a PhD in Indo-European linguistics. Ch’owatlok was designed to have a different sound and structure from both modern Indo-European languages as well as from the native language (Khuthuri) of the main character Aathi's family and tribe of invasive farmers. Set at the arrival of agriculture in Denmark, the film portrays the culture clash between the local hunter-gatherers and the invading population of farmers who would take over the area both culturally and genetically (see Funnelbeaker culture). The language was also designed to fit moviemaker Mads Hedegaard's conception of what the language should sound like in the film and had to be realistically learnable by the actors of the film.

Development

Ch’owatlok was created by Søborg as needed for the script of the movie. By the time casting for Stranger began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to read and pronounce Ch’owatlok dialogue during auditions. Before and during shooting, Søborg worked intensively with the cast, during workshops and one-on-ones, helping them understand the dialogue and advising them on their pronunciation. Søborg was present throughout the shooting period in Hungary and was able to modify or create new lines on the spot. Actors would occasionally make mistakes in speaking Ch’owatlok. In the case of the main characters, Aathi and Tharan, those mistakes could be explained by their learning the language as a second language. In other cases, the mistakes that made it into the final cut were incorporated into the language.

Phonology

Ch’owatlok has a series of ejective consonants contrasting with plain voiceless stops or affricates. The language is also notable for having several laterals, including a voiceless lateral fricative and both plain and ejective voiceless lateral affricate. There is a glottal stop and series of palatal and labiovelar consonants.

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			plain	lateral		plain	labialized
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩		ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩	ŋʷ ⟨ngw⟩
Stop	plain	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	t͡ɬ ⟨tl⟩	t͡ʃ ⟨ch⟩	k ⟨k⟩	kʷ ⟨kw⟩	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	ejective	pʼ ⟨p'⟩	tʼ ⟨t'⟩	t͡ɬʼ ⟨tl'⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨ch'⟩	kʼ ⟨k'⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kw'⟩
Fricative			s ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨hl⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩		(ʍ ⟨hw⟩)	h ⟨h⟩
Liquid			ɾ ⟨r⟩	l ⟨l⟩	ʎ ⟨ly⟩
Semivowel					j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩