How do people decipher fictional languages with seemingly random and unfamiliar symbols?
In: Culture
If it’s an actual language then the symbols aren’t random. Most commonly, it will be based off of, or be very similar to an existing , real language. Once the association is made, you can use the known patterns of the real language to work on deciphering the fake one.
If it is completely novel, or its connections to real languages are unknown, it will still have patterns that can be analyzed. Deciphering it would use the same tools and methods people use to decipher real languages that are currently unknown. It’s mainly based on analyzing patterns and comparing them to things we know.
Conlangs or [constructed languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language) are planned by an author or writers instead of having evolved naturally like our own languages. They may look random, but they’re anything but. They’re often created translation in mind. So keys and sometimes whole translation dictionaries exist.
Many times the creators of Conlangs will borrow from existing symbols and [sounds](https://youtu.be/oa6cHEJIjYI) of other languages. [Klingon](https://www.kli.org/about-klingon/klingon-history/) is probably the best known example of a conlang.
> Dr. Okrand did not base Klingon on any particular language, but drew on his knowledge of how language works to construct a wholly new language. During filming, he coached the actors on pronunciation, and then amended Klingon to match not only their mispronunciations, but also changes made to the subtitles after the lines were recorded. Dr. Okrand’s description of the language he created was published in 1985 as The Klingon Dictionary.
> Most use the writing system that Dr. Okrand devised, but some use pIqaD, a writing system based on the glyphs used in set decoration.
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