Xenolinguistics Project: class 2025 presents a preview of their work

20/5/2025

The Xenolinguistics Project is back at IMPA Tech. On Monday (19), students from class 2025 presented the activities underway in the subject Linguistic Skills, taught by Professor Cilene Rodrigues. The projects consist of creating hypothetical languages, “alien languages”, which have syntax similar to human languages, in order to provide students with tools for learning grammar.

“This semester’s work is very well referenced. The students are doing imaginative projects, but based on scientific research, which is what we expect. They are developing well, both in terms of oral exposition, presentation skills and thought structure, as well as grammatical awareness,” said the teacher.

As in the previous semester, the work followed different paths and each group developed a language focused on specific needs, with morphemes and grammatical rules that cater to the peoples and civilizations portrayed. The impact of artificial intelligence on society, futurism and adaptations to biological and geographical aspects were some of the topics covered.

Young Matheus de Carvalho’s group created a language for beings that inhabit a fictional moon, inspired by the movie Avatar. “Science fiction authors set out to create planets and creatures to provide a backdrop for their stories, so I’ve always been interested in this. I really liked the proposal,” he said.

Student Nicole Freire’s group was inspired by an anime to develop their project, which created a being with a fluid body. “Learning how a language works is very innovative. We used different ideas and knowledge in the project and in imagining our creature. We solved problems as they arose,” she said.

In addition to the slide show, the students materialized the creation in a 3D print, based on the knowledge acquired in the Introduction to Laboratory course. “The software used, the skills and ideas on how to use it… everything came from what we learned here, as well as the programs, which are those recommended by the teachers, and the whole theoretical basis of how to work and design models,” he added.

For teacher Cilene, interdisciplinarity is one of the factors responsible for the success of the activity. “They need to think of a communication system also as an adaptive process in an ecosystem, so it involves physics, chemistry and biology. The project involves the creation of a planet, a creature and its language system. I think this union of various areas of knowledge is what can really solidify knowledge in the individual, not just learning separate units of knowledge,” he said.

In addition to the teacher, the subject assistants and students from the 2024 class attended Monday’s presentations. The integration of the two classes was also strategically designed to work on interdisciplinarity. “Other students came to watch and exchange ideas with the freshmen. As they have already done the project, they can help them and make contributions to their work. The only requirement was that they ask questions in English,” said Cilene, reinforcing the idea of developing different areas of knowledge.

At the end of the period, the undergraduates will present the final version of their work, incorporating the adjustments recommended at this stage and the new knowledge acquired in the classroom.

Last year, young people from the first graduating class also created and presented their languages. In July 2024, the 1st IMPA Tech Xenolinguistics Exhibition took place in the classrooms of Porto Maravalley. In September of the same year, students took interdisciplinarity to the stage at FestMat, in Marina da Glória.

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