That's the only way to explain Deanna Troi's accent. She took the trouble to learn the language while everybody else was speaking their native tongue using the translator.
Name the individuals, races, cultures and/or planets that don't...
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That's the only way to explain Deanna Troi's accent. She took the trouble to learn the language while everybody else was speaking their native tongue using the translator.
Hmm, that could be true.
I think the question is better phrased as which species are incapable of speaking English (based on the original suggestion).
I'll add Xindi Insectoids and Xindi Aquatics
I'll add Xindi Insectoids and Xindi Aquatics
The Horta
Personally--and this is the geek in me--I would've preferred instead of dubbing, someone actually taking the time to create more languages than just Klingon.
The only thing is I imagine the writers would be lazy and write strings of nonsense for the aliens of the week to say, and that would probably get annoying. :-/
Oh well...that's what we have books and fanfic for...
The only thing is I imagine the writers would be lazy and write strings of nonsense for the aliens of the week to say, and that would probably get annoying. :-/
Oh well...that's what we have books and fanfic for...
I think occasionally having the alien races (besides Klingons) speak their language would have been really cool. Occasionally. I think I'm just too shallow or parochial or something to enjoy too much of that kind of thing. I mean, I love LOTR, but I must admit that I skip over any of the poems written in Elvish.
At least Trek came up with an excuse. After being sensible in the movie, the Stargate series never even bothered to try and explain why everybody else - including beings from another galaxy - can speak modern English, a language that would not even have existed at the time of the ancients...
They all watched Star trek on their home worlds, obviously.
I didn't like LotR because it went way overboard. But, I think there's nothing wrong with, say, the occasional sentence or two before the translator kicks in for the viewers. Or if it's a new race, subtitle them on their first appearance. Or sometimes, if you want to accentuate that one of the human/English-speaking characters has switched languages.
In my writing, I typically have only one sentence at a time, or certain words and phrases in their original language, so it doesn't become overwhelming.
^ i loved the way it was done in ST6, when Kirk and McCoy were in the Klingon court. First couple of lines in Klingon and then they switched over to english, while McCoy and Kirk still held on to the translaters and listened through them. I could live with that-
Yeah...that's kind of like the way I write it--though as I go on further, I'll occasionally inject certain phrases that I've already "taught" my readers.
^ Cool!
I'm with you on this--like I assume that Vulcans "actually" have green tongues, I assume that aliens' mouths aren't really moving in time with the translation.
JustKate said:
I skip over any poetry I ever find in a novel. I don't know why. I did it with the Marie23 character's in Houllebecq's The Possibility of an Island, I did it with the Mike computer's "Adam Selene" persona in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and surely many others that I don't remember offhand. I guess I just don't like poems.
Nerys Ghemor said:
Developing a full-on language is quite a bit of work, as you know, though.
Plus at the end of the day, each is going to be an artificial creation--probably unlike any organic language. However, this may actually be acceptable--I strongly suspect that, Federation English aside, aliens tend to use auxiliary languages, analogous to Esperanto, in order to 1)permit intracultural communication without the hassles of a UT and 2)permit easy translation for aliens, who aren't likely to have the Romulan equivalent of Navajo in their lexical databases.This might also explain the jarring silliness of the UT "failing" when Klingons and others say something rude in their native language, the only other explanations being acceptable dramatic license and an unacceptable theory that every Klingon or whoever actually does speak English despite the wide availability of UTs.
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Believe me, Myasishchev, that experience with language-building is why I know that it would never happen on a Trek show again, after Klingon. Although I certainly enjoy working on my Cardassian language...
I do think, personally, that most cultures may use a single language in interstellar travel. In a few cases I think that uniformity of language has been forced on the people (such as with my main-universe Cardassians), and a lot of the other languages have been forgotten.
The other explanation, though, and the one I tend to go with, is that the UT is actually not failing. My personal UT theory is that as you begin to understand words of the other language for yourself, depending on what mode you place the UT in, it backs off as you learn, and you hear the words in the original language for yourself. That's actually what happens in my own writing--over time, one of the humans finds himself beginning to hear and understand the Cardassians speak in their own language.
I do think, personally, that most cultures may use a single language in interstellar travel. In a few cases I think that uniformity of language has been forced on the people (such as with my main-universe Cardassians), and a lot of the other languages have been forgotten.
The other explanation, though, and the one I tend to go with, is that the UT is actually not failing. My personal UT theory is that as you begin to understand words of the other language for yourself, depending on what mode you place the UT in, it backs off as you learn, and you hear the words in the original language for yourself. That's actually what happens in my own writing--over time, one of the humans finds himself beginning to hear and understand the Cardassians speak in their own language.
That has been a gripe of mine since I started watching TNG in 1987. I always feel "Dune" got it right with the first stage guild navigators. The aliens should have been standing there snarling and jabbering while the words can also be heard in English.
Especially since the universal translator is, in itself, one of the most unrealistic things in Star Trek, and I am not exaggerating. Have you ever seen what a computer translation looks like? Try AltaVista or some other online translator - they are great only if you want to have a good laugh.OK, I am not saying that there can't be more sophisticated programs, with a better vocabulary, more idioms and so on, sometime in the future... but any linguist will tell you that there is no way in hell that a computer device could ever perform successful translations from one language to another, all by itself. You'd get something like the infamous "out of sight, out of mind" = "invisible, insane" computer translation from English to Chinese and back into English. In speech, so much depends on context, so the only successful machine translator would have to be AI. And in that case, why bother at all? Why not have human translators who use computerized dictionaries to be able to translate quicker?
And let's not even mention how unrealistic it is to have that device translate the words accurately at the same time as they are coming out of a person's mouth (without even having time to consider the meaning of the entire sentence). In reality, a non-AI machine working as a simultaneous interpreter would create such a high probability of error that the communication might completely break down.
Now this person knows what they speak of.
The UT is completely unrealistic and always struck me as ridiculous.
Not to mention that it translates languages that it hasn't even heard before!
The explanation in TOS is that it reads brainwaves and transmits the speaker's approximate meaning directly into your head. Sure, why not?
The explanation in TOS is that it reads brainwaves and transmits the speaker's approximate meaning directly into your head. Sure, why not?
Especially since the universal translator is, in itself, one of the most unrealistic things in Star Trek, and I am not exaggerating. Have you ever seen what a computer translation looks like? Try AltaVista or some other online translator - they are great only if you want to have a good laugh.
And let's not even mention how unrealistic it is to have that device translate the words accurately at the same time as they are coming out of a person's mouth (without even having time to consider the meaning of the entire sentence). In reality, a non-AI machine working as a simultaneous interpreter would create such a high probability of error that the communication might completely break down.
Now this person knows what they speak of.
The UT is completely unrealistic and always struck me as ridiculous.
Actually he/she does not given the comparison in question.
Reality of the situation is that for Trek, their technology is a few hundred years ahead of ours for one thing ... and technological progression ever since the late 21st century was not stagnated by corporations and greedy people in power.
There's a reason their technology is so advanced to begin with.
I'm not saying the UT would work like that in real life ... I'm merely saying there's an obvious technological and temporal gap here that is being overlooked, not to mention comparison between what we can do today, and what a (fictional) space-faring civilization that spans 8000ly's (and has 150 species in the fold) can do.
Actually she does, because she is a linguist. The level of technology does nothing to explain UT. If the UT was supposed to be an AI machine... that would make more sense. But it is not.
"They have advanced technology" is not a magic word that can be used to "explain" everything without actually explaining.
Bottom line, the UT is completely unrealistic, but who cares? We know that it is just a plot device, because it is a TV show and you can't have everyone speaking in all sorts of made-up languages.
It's no problem, we can use the suspension of disbelief just fine, and it still sounds less stupid than the idea that everyone in the galaxy is speaking English.Similar threads
