Simlish

Overview

Debuted in Sim Copter, Simlish, became the fictional language in most of the Sim games made by Maxis/ EA. It became more notable in The Sims franchise. Other than the Sim games Simlish can be heard in Spore, which the creatures can be taught the language. The language was first inspired by Native American code talkers of World War II. Will Wright and language professional Marc Gimbel recommended trying the Navajo language to create Simlish. Soon after, it was decided upon that Simlish would be similar to gibberish. That way the player wouldn’t know what the character is saying and it would be up to the player’s imagination on what the Sim was talking about. When recording the speech for the game the voice actors would improvise speaking the language.

In Music

In The Sims games the character can listen to music on radios that can be purchased in the game. In addition, Simlish can be heard through the TV within the game.                    

Rerecorded Songs

Starting with the Black Eyed Peas, they recorded their new songs, “Lets Get it Started” and “Shut Up”, for the game Urbz: Sims in the city. Afterward on The Sims 2 and further expansion packs artists rerecorded their new songs in Simlish for the game. Some of the artists and bands include:

• Depeche Mode – “Suffer Well” for Open for Business expansion pack
• Barenaked Ladies – “Easy”, “What A Let Down”, amd “Wind It Up for”, for Family Fun Stuff Pack
• Aly and A.J. – “Chemicals React”  for Pets expansion pack
• The Flaming Lips - "Free Radicals" for Pets expansion pack
• The Pussycat Dolls – “Don’t Cha” for Pets expansion pack
• Lilly Allen – “Smile” for Seasons expansion pack
• Natasha Bedingfield - "Pocket Full of Sunshine" for Freetime expansion pack
• Katy Perry - "Hot n' Cold" for Apartment Life expansion pack

Written Simlish & Phrases

In Writing

Written Simslish is rarely seen in the games. When it is, it can appear on the books on the book shelf and on TV. Sometimes it can look like Zodiac symbols or Cyrillic, they are usually nonsense characters. When the Sims are writing or typing dingbats from Wingdings font are seen. Other times they are just random lines.

Phrases

In The Sims games the characters say certain phrases that are commonly believed to have a meaning. For example,"degg degg" is usually said when a Sim is leaving and a possible meaning could be, “bye bye”. The phrase, “Nooboo” is actually confirmed that it means baby. Most of the words are improvised by the voice actors, so the majority of the expressions don’t essentially have a meaning.