Ever wonder what minion language is?
- Or what is the origin of the Minion language in the movie “Despicable Me?”
- Underwear
- Lakareh – lireywii
- Gih leh byaaa
- Mah ko rehhh
- Underwear
If you are a “Despicable Me” fan, the unique Minionese language must have raised some questions in your mind.
What language do minions speak?
Does the language have meaning, or is it all gibberish?
And the most exciting part is you can understand some words if you speak any of these languages. Those are English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Filipino, Korean, etc. These are famous languages worldwide, and the director of “Despicable Me” used these languages to create this unique expression.
Table of Contents
What Kind of Language do Minions Speak?
Minions speak or communicate through the Minionese language, which is sometimes also referred to as the Banana language. It is a fictional or constructed language (conlang) created by animator and film director Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda. They are not linguists. They made up the language using words from different lingos, food names, and physical expressions. So you can understand the relationship between language and culture, which helps create other languages, just like the Minionese language.
Physical expressions are body posture, gestures, touch, eye movement, and facial expressions.
These ways of expression are universally understood. Coffin and Balda used body language wisely, combining foods and French, Spanish, English, Korean, Hindi, and other languages. Hence, Minion’s language is easy to understand from their movements and actions, which makes it even more enjoyable.
Coffin said that when creating the Minions language, they thought about how funny it would sound!
Sometimes however absurd it might sound, the creators wanted to keep the communication that way.
Weird words like Bello (Hello), Bank you (Thank you), Poopaye (Goodbye), Me want banana (I am hungry), etc. have no meaning. The creators tried to make the Minion expressions funny and adorable.
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Is there an actual minion language?
The answer is no. It is a constructed language with no direct connection with natural languages. The co-directors of “Despicable Me” created this funny sounding gibberish to make the little yellow creatures adorable to the audience. You do not require the meaning of the spoken words to understand their intentions and body language.
You can refer to some examples of minion language words to analyze the significant features yourself. Find the corresponding words to understand the minion language perfectly. There is no authentic minion language translator.
Also, the film production provided no information on minion language translation. So, certified translation services cannot help to translate minion-speaking terms.
The Basic Features of the Minion Language:
We might have thought of Minions as villains who wanted to be the most notorious of all. Understanding their language does not make any difference in enjoying the movie. So, the movie directors picked miscellaneous words from different languages and combined them with funny sounds.
Do you want to know how to speak Minion? The simplest way is to divide the Minion words into particular segments. Such as:
Single Words in the Minion Language:
If you listen to the words Minion speaks in the movie, you can relate them to some of the real-world languages. In the following, we have mentioned some examples to help you identify a few words taken from different languages.
- Tulaliloo ti amo – Italian, meaning “We love you”
- Gelato – the Italian word for “Ice cream.”
- la boda– the Spanish word for “Wedding.”
- bi-do – Arabic, meaning “I’m sorry.”
- Terimakasi– an Indonesian word that means “Thank you.”
- Hana, dul, sae– Korean number counting system, “One, two, three.”
- Kanpai! – a Japanese word that means “Cheers.”
- Para tu– Esperanto, meaning “For you”
- Pwede na? – Filipino means “Is it ready?”
You may find several other words in the minion language relating to different languages. You may go through the script to find the languages for “minion talk” to find some more similar examples.
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English Language – Baby talk
Babies cannot pronounce words correctly. So, they form some unique words while trying to speak the actual words. Minions have borrowed some English words and converted them into baby talks. Examples of such expressions are:
- I swear – Underwear
- Poopaye – Goodbye
- Me want banana – I am hungry
- Tank yu – Thank you
- Butt or buttom – Butt or bottom (It is toilet humor often used in Minion communications)
Listening to these English words in the Minions languages seems like they are trying to communicate in English. And soon, they will start speaking in complete sentences in English. There are several other English words that minions use in their unique ways. If you concentrate on the movie, you can identify the words.
Onomatopoeia Sounds in The Minion Language:
Onomatopoeia refers to using words that phonetically resemble the sound it describes. For example, ‘Pitter-patter raining on the glass window’ – here, pitter-patter describes the sound of rain on the glass. Also, animal sounds like meow, roar, oink, and chirp are examples of onomatopoeia words.
Minions use several onomatopoeias for their expressions. One Minion referred to the noise of a fire engine as “bee do bee do bee do” when trying to indicate a fire. Most of their sentences have such expressions you can recognize.
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Tone and inflections in Minion Language:
Native speakers pronounce one word in distinct tones for different meanings. The creator of the Minion speaking style also utilized the same feature in the Minion language. Minions used Intonation and body language in about 93% of expressions. So, even if their language is not understandable, children can get their characters from their intonations and body language.
The Bottom Line
Almost all “Despicable Me” fans wonder what language does the minions speak. To get the whole concept, you need to find out who created the minions because the Minion language is created and recorded by two co-directors of the movie. In this movie, they defined how to speak minion languages and made it famous worldwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How many languages do Minions speak?
All fans pose the same question: what language does minions speak? Minions do not use any meaningful language to communicate. They mainly use intonations and body language to communicate between each-others. Also, they imported words from different languages in their unique way.
So, they speak only the Minion Language, in which some words from English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Arabic, Filipino, Korean, etc., are used. Apart from languages, they use different food names in their language, like Hana, Dul, Sae, Poulet tikka masala, Gelato, etc.
Q2. Is Minion language a real language?
We cannot say minion language to be a real language. Rather it is a mixed bag of different languages that create a fun speech like baby talk.
Q3. How do Minions say I love you?
As per the Minions language, it is ‘Tulaliloo ti amo’.
Q4. Does Minion speak Korean?
You can get the words from Spanish, French, Hindi, English, and Korean in the Minion language.
Q5. What is Minion language called?
Minions usually speak a language named Minionese. Also, it is known as the Banana language.
Q6. How does Minion say Hello?
When we say ‘ Hello’ in English, in Minion language it is called ‘ Bello’.
Q7. Who invented Minions?
Eric Guillon is the inventor of Minions.
Q8. What is the origin of the Minion language?
You can get the origins of the Minion language in the basics of ancient Egypt. Also, they previously work with Paraoh.
