In the world of Conlangs (or constructed languages), Klingon, Elvish, Dothraki and Esperanto were created by expert linguists. Just like real languages, they developed and evolved over years of use by fans and language enthusiasts. However, a new Conlang is starting to build up in vocabulary as well as in popularity: Minionese, the language of Minions!
Also called Banana Language by some fans, the gibberish that the hysterical yellow Minions from the Despicable Me movies (and their own spin-off movie) is actually a bunch of words taken from other languages, as well as some onomatopoeia (words that sound like what they mean), or just syllables that sound silly together.
According to Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, directors of the Minions movie, they used their creative license to pick up interesting-sounding words from all over the world to create the Minions’ own unique way of speaking. They said in an interview that they envisioned the Minions as being able to work for evil villains all over the world, so that gives them global appeal.
“We sort of established that these guys have been around, like, forever, serving masters all over the world and it gave us some sort of license to pick words here and there … Funny words, like in the Japanese language, and the Korean language, Chinese, Italian—and mix everything up to make this very special language that they have,” they said.
Chris Renaud, who co-directed Despicable Me, the movie where the Minions first appeared, said that Coffin recorded the bulk of the Minion gibberish and it’s due to his injection of various foreign words that the language sounds amusing and authentic.
“Their language sounds silly, but when you believe that they’re actually communicating, that’s what makes it funnier. What’s great about the Minion language, while it is gibberish, it sounds real because Pierre puts in words from many languages and does the lion’s share of the Minion recordings. There are a lot of food references. For example, ‘poulet tiki masala’ is French for the Indian chicken dish,” he said.
Now, brush up on your language skills and get ready to dive into the Banana zone. Here are some words to get you started speaking like a Minion in no time!
Useful Phrases
Hello – Bello
Goodbye – Poopaye
Thank you -Tank yu
I’m sorry – Bi-do
Can we start? – Pwede na?
For you – Para tu
How dare you? -Sa la ka!
I hate you – Tatata bala tu
I swear… – Underwear…
I’m hungry – Me want banana
Look at you – Luk at tu
We love you – Tulaliloo ti amo
Numbers
One – Hana
Two – Dul
Three – Sae
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