I am reading Rosetta and noticed several times that Sen refers to the Ferengi as Verengi. Is this a mistake by the author or the way the character is supposed to say it?
Enterprise Rosetta , Ferengi or Verengi?
- Thread starter dispatcher812
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Presumably that's how it's interpreted in the speaker's language. Or maybe the Ferengi he'd interacted with used a different dialect or language in which that was how their species name was rendered. Trek far too often assumes that every species has only one language, which is ridiculous -- Earth alone has hundreds. There are many, many different human words for "human," so why should be be surprised that an alien species has more than one name for itself?
In metatextual terms, we know that the Federation wasn't familiar with the Ferengi until the 24th century, so having them known by a different name in the 22nd helps avoid continuity issues.
When I wrote The Buried Age, I think it was, I put in a line about how the Federation was hearing early reports of a civilization called the Ferengi or Varangi or something. I may have been unconsciously remembering the bit from Rosetta, but I was going for the same idea, different linguistic variants on the species name.
Of course, in real life, "ferengi" is basically the Arabic/Turkish/etc. word for a foreigner or European -- it's derived from "Frank," i.e. Frenchman, since the French were among the first Europeans to travel widely in that part of the world. Indeed, I just came across it today in a Ms. Marvel comic set in Pakistan.
Of course, in real life, "ferengi" is basically the Arabic/Turkish/etc. word for a foreigner or European -- it's derived from "Frank," i.e. Frenchman, since the French were among the first Europeans to travel widely in that part of the world. Indeed, I just came across it today in a Ms. Marvel comic set in Pakistan.
...Should we perhaps also think the Frenni traders from Carmen Carter's Dreams of the Raven were Ferengi pronounced funnily? I mean, everybody knows them by reputation in that book, but it's not as if anybody (outside a DS9-style "wild" trading station) would have seen them! Spock also refers to "our profiles" on the species rather than on solid knowledge. The merchants even lisp in a "sibilant" voice...
Timo Saloniemi
Wait, Ms. Marvel spelled/pronounced it the same way as the Star Trek species?
Yes, exactly -- or rather, the Star Trek species got its name from the existing word. I've seen it spelled ferenghi in some contexts (I think Turkish), but Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel was visiting her family's home in Karachi, Pakistan, so it was presumably in Urdu. On the second-last page, when she met the local superhero after trying to deal with a crime, he pointed out how she didn't understand the nuances of the situation, "being a ferengi."
Of course, it's not unusual for Trek aliens' names to be derived from Earth terms -- e.g. Vulcan, Romulan, Borg, El-Aurian (from an angel in Hebrew lore, apparently), etc. Even the Klingons were named after a friend of Roddenberry's, Wilbur Clingan.
And, of course, the Cardassians were named after Hollywood lawyer Robert Kardashian.*
*This may be an urban legend.
*This may be an urban legend.
You mean like this?
They call us "hew-mons"...
Which makes no sense given that DS9 - "Little Green Men" established DS9's Ferengi to not know English, rather speaking a/the Ferengi language the whole time. How the hell can an entire species' translators have the same ridiculous error?
I always took it as them deliberately just saying "human", but with a little added contempt for us thrown into the mix.
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