Simlish is a constructed language devised by game designer Will Wright for the Sims game series developed by Electronic Arts. During the development of SimCopter (1996), Wright sought to avoid real-world languages, believing that players would grow to show disdain for repetitive dialogue. For the release of The Sims, Maxis recorded hundreds of voice clips with unique cadences and emotional nuance.
While developing SimCopter (1996),[1] designer Will Wright explicitly avoided using real-world languages such that players could resonate with the emotions of the characters rather than their speech. The initial dialogue team—comprising Wright, audio lead Robi Kauker, voice director Claire Curtin, sound designer Kent Jolly, and composer Jerry Martin—began by using musical instruments reminiscent of the "wah wah" sound effect heard in some Peanuts animated specials. The idea to use musical instruments was quickly scrapped.[2]
Wright experimented with several real-world languages to use within The Sims, including Ukrainian, Navajo, Tagalog,[1] and Estonian, but faced difficulty in finding voice actors and developing a unique identity for the language; with regards to the Ukrainian language, its Slavic undertone was unsuitable for the project. Simlish ultimately became a combination of these languages.[3] One voice actor based in San Francisco, Stephen Kearin, recounted being given a pidgin version of Swahili and Cherokee. Kearin then suggested he speak gibberish, and Wright agreed. Until 2006, Kearin and his female counterpart Gerri Lawlor served as the Simlish actors.[2]
Development
Since SimCopter's release, Simlish has adapted. In The Sims (2000), a trill is heard that resembles a Spanish trill, whereas later games have chosen to favor English pronunciations.[4] Online Simlish dictionaries have emerged, signalling a departure from pragmatic uses.[5] According to Kauker, The Sims had 3,000 to 4,000 voice events split between Kearin and Lawlor. In The Sims 2 (2004), over 50,000 lines of dialogue were recorded across a team of 11. For The Sims 2, Maxis used Max developed by Cycling '74 with the digital signal processor (DSP) plugin MSP and the manipulation plugin Jitter, both by Cycling '74.[6]
Phonology
Although Simlish is not intended to be a structured language, it shares several rules in how it is pronounced.[4]
Consonants
Simlish consonants are limited; while English permits three consonants in a row, such as in the word "strong", Simlish words may use up to two consonants sequentially. However, these consonants may be used in unorthodox ways in comparison to English, such as bwu.[4]
The author of the linguistics blog Wug Life argued that the phonotactics of Simlish and English were the same, allowing artists who speak Spanish to effortlessly translate their songs into Simlish due to the similarities in the phonotactics of English and Spanish. The post cites the lack of Simlish and English words that lack vowels, such as the word vlk, which means "wolf" in Czech.[9]
Grammar
Pronouns
The word "vou"[S 1] or "voo"[10] means "you" in English. The word "ah" can be used to demonstrate self-inflicted verbs, such as Ah sha noop! "I should know!"[S 1]
Possessive determiners
To demonstrate personal possessiveness, the word "ma" can be used.[S 2]
Ma doctork. "My doctor."
Verbs
In the indicative mood, the word "zerpa" means "there is" or "there's", as in Zerpa stamby imba bweb. "There's a stranger in my bed."[7]
Vocabulary
3. Basic vocabulary in Simlish
English
Simlish
baby
nooboo
fire
fliblia
night
noop
Several Simlish words are officially recognized, such as nooboo "baby" and fliblia "fire". English may be transcribed into Simlish, as was done to transcribe Katy Perry songs into Simlish.[2] For instance, the word "boo leyar" is equivalent to "boulevard", as are "par" to "park" and "crabbi car" to "credit card".[S 3] The word "like" is unchanged between English and Simlish.[S 1]
wabadebadoo: [literally or figuratively] I'm on fire.[11]
Greetings
The most universally agreed upon greeting in Simlish is sul sul (equivalent to aloha in Hawaiian), which may be used for greetings or farewells. According to the developers, it was created as a spliced phrase[clarification needed].[2] Alternatively, the phrase o vwa vwaf sna "nice to meet you" or dag dag "goodbye" can be used.[11][13]
Writing system
In the world of The Sims, text is often omitted from signs. Stop signs in The Sims (2000), for example, do not have text and use a flat, white hand against a red octagon to depict the object. The Simlish alphabet does not match either the Latin or the Cyrillic alphabets. The symbol for the Simoleon—a currency used throughout the series—is §. When writing texts, dingbats from the Wingdings font appear.[14]
