The Words and Languages of ‘The Big Bang Theory’

May 16 brings the final episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” one of TV’s most popular comedies. The show started in 2007 and has run for 12 seasons. The May 16 series finale will mark the show’s 279th episode, making it the longest-running multi-camera sitcom on American TV.

Fans of the show have come to love the contentious but ultimately caring relationships between the show’s protagonists: Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard; and Penny, Amy, and Bernadette. 

Fans also appreciate the way the show has blended wordplay, pop culture lingo, and scientific jargon into the characters’ day-to-day conversations. 

To celebrate the end of the show, here are some fun facts about the words and languages used on “The Big Bang Theory.”

Fake Languages Used on ‘The Big Bang Theory’: Klingon, Ubbi Dubbi, and Op

First, we’ll talk about three fake languages used on the show.

• First, there’s Klingon, the constructed language that was first developed for the TV series Star Trek, which ran from 1966 to ‘69. The first words of Klingon were developed by James Doohan, the actor who played “Scottie” on the original series developed the first words in Klingon. The invented language was then expanded in 1984 by linguist Marc Okrand, who was hired to flesh it out for the movie “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” It’s since become a fully functioning language that’s spoken by hard-core Star Trek fans worldwide. A recent Planet Money podcast episode even reported that about 1% of CAPTCHA farmers—those are people (usually in countries like China, India, and Russia) who manually solve CAPTCHAs on websites all day long for fractions of pennies a shot—were able to solve instructions given to them in Klingon.
• We also hear Ubbi Dubbi on the ‘The Big Bang Theory.' Ubbi Dubbi is a code language, kind of like Pig Latin. Penny and Amy use it so they can talk without Leonard and Sheldon understanding. To speak Ubbi Dubbi, you add “ub” before each of the vowel sounds in a word.  Instead of “hello,” you’d say “hub-ell-ub-o.” Instead of “thanks,” you’d say “thu-banks.”
• Finally, there’s Op, used by Amy. To speak Op, you spell out every word in a sentence (except for the first word) and add “-op” to the end of each consonant. So instead of saying, “Hey, dude,” you’...

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