Former UGA Linguistics students create language for ground-breaking Marvel movie

Graduate students Ryan Hearn, left, and Joseph Rhyne hold the grammar guide and dictionary for the Torfan language and a poster for "Captain Marvel."

Two former UGA Linguistics graduate students, Ryan Hearn,M.A.'14 and Joseph Rhyne,M.A.'17 were recently credited with creating an alien language Torfan for the "Captain Marvel" film released this year.

While focusing on historical linguistics in the  Ph.D. program at Cornell University, Hearn and Rhyne were presented with the opportunity from their advisor, Michael Weiss, who was contacted by Marvel Studies about the project. Marvel routinely creates new, complex languages for its movies. When attempting to create a new language, Hearn and Rhyne had to tackle many issues, deal with deadlines and focus on how they wanted to create a language that stays true to the artistic vision.

You can read more about this story by visiting Linguistics students create language for ground-breaking Marvel movie and Linguistics students create language for 'Captain Marvel'

Article Credit: Catherine Gorey, A&S Communications, Cornell University

Photo Credit: Chris Kitchen, Cornell University

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