[166/365] linguistbabble
Jun. 15th, 2023 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguist
It's been so long since the first season of Strange New Worlds that I forget that now Star Trek has Linguistbabble in the same way it has Technobabble.
"It's an obscure dialect, but I can work out the syntax..."
I wish I could be a science-ficitony linguist, where you just hear or see some language and stare into the middle distance for the briefest of moments, maybe mutter to yourself slightly, and then you speak unfaltering full sentences, in perfect idiomatic English, which probably further the plot in a dramatic way.
(And, as a friend of mine pointed out when I complained about this, the sentences often rhyme! In English!)
There's a tumblr screenshot I'll never find again that does a great job of depicting what linguists are actually like. I think they're deciphering some archeological inscription in this case and it's all mumbling and ellipses and "the-man-he-walks-to...wait, this language doesn't distinguish verbs and adjectives does it...this word means 'thousand'...unless it's 'cake'..."
Basically, if you do a month of Duolingo and then try to read a newspaper in that language, it should feel more like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-16 12:31 am (UTC)There were probably other versions but this is the one I could find on my old Tumbls.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-16 12:55 am (UTC)Thank you! This is definitely some version of what I was thinking of. It makes me so happy to see it again.
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Date: 2023-06-16 01:04 am (UTC)And they all have the same puns we do!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-26 06:41 pm (UTC)Ha, yes, what a coincidence.
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Date: 2023-06-16 08:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-16 10:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-26 06:42 pm (UTC)I love Arrival. It is very much better than most sci-fi linguists. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-17 10:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-26 06:43 pm (UTC)This is such a good point! I've always found that really annoying and I think this articulates why! No one could learn such a language! Where's its phonology and syntax and morphology??
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-26 06:49 pm (UTC)silly plot reasonsunbreakable cultural convention, Important Stuff is always done with their Ritual Story Reference Language" but even then -a. If you have a unit which means "okay, we're going to go through a shared experience and then be friends" why the heck wouldn't the UT translate it thusly instead of all that Darmok gibberish and
b. Sure, I can see why you might be super referential when talking about Big Important Stuff, but do these people never have a need to say "Ugh, that went down the wrong way?" or "It's your turn to change the baby's diaper" or "My neighbor is a jerk" or "I got a great deal on exotic luxury goods, party at my house"? (Or do those all have stories attached to them as well?)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-26 06:55 pm (UTC)Haha I love this!
I'd hate to be the person that the "It's your turn to change the baby's diaper" story that everyone knows had to be about.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-18 09:07 pm (UTC)