sashenka
2007-11-30 09:24 pm UTC (link)

Haha, half my fandoms never bother explaining it or have some sort of half-assed explanation thrown in that no one remembers. You might be interested in Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy, because the babelfish is a pretty cool parody on the lack of any scientific reasoning of aliens and humans understanding each other. Also, in some sci fi fandoms, when they speak English, it isn't English, but "standard" or some other universal language that many races speak in addition to their own and use for more inter-species communication. I believe that's how the Star Wars universe is, but I wouldn't swear by it.

(Reply to this)

	hurricane 2007-11-30 09:26 pm UTC (link)
	The TARDIS translates automatically through telepathies. In Star Trek, there's a universal translator of some sort. Battlestar Galactica is all humans and human-created intelligences. So is Red Dwarf. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	puipui 2007-11-30 10:33 pm UTC (link)
	The TARDIS translates automatically through telepathies. Even when it's been blown up or otherwise isn't even there! Because it's just that good, apparently. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	threegoldfish 2007-11-30 11:46 pm UTC (link)
	Well, duh. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	hurricane 2007-12-01 04:48 am UTC (link)
	The TARDIS transcends common sense with its sheer awesomeness. This is an after effect of Season 17. (Reply to this)(Parent)

stromatolite
2007-11-30 09:59 pm UTC (link)

There's a Star Trek novel that I like because it addresses this issue a bit. Right away, it is revealed that Data does not use the universal translator on a first contact mission, and as a result of learning the local language, is able to fit in better and glean insight into local perspectives. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the novel. I also like Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue trilogy for its treatment of alien linguistics (the main plot is a bit more like The Handmaid's Tale than anything alien-focused).

(Reply to this)(Thread)

shark
2007-11-30 10:12 pm UTC (link)

I remember Sharon Shinn's Wrapt In Crystal does this thing with a spacecop who doesn't speak his planetary assignment's language really, really well -- he has translators for most of the book, acting as intermediaries between the locals and himself, and then he slowly learns the language on his own to the point of fluency -- it's one of my favorite books ever, and I really, really need to re-read it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	stromatolite 2007-12-01 01:52 am UTC (link)
	That sounds like something I will have to add to my reading list. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	stromatolite 2007-11-30 10:13 pm UTC (link)
	Also, although Star Trek usually handwaves all languages into English via universal translator, the Klingon language is probably the most fleshed-out of artificial languages, aside from Esperanto. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	shark 2007-11-30 10:16 pm UTC (link)
	Oh man, I had forgotten about Klingon entirely -- and lord, that's with people getting married in Klingon. grins (Reply to this)(Parent)

	msilverstar 2007-11-30 11:40 pm UTC (link)
	I'm sure Babylon 5 has lots of interesting language bits. Also Firefly, with all the Chinese swearing and no asian characters, what's with that? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	kelschuu 2007-12-01 12:30 am UTC (link)
	In the Firefly universe, the Alliance was first formed by China and the USA, so Chinese is (at least supposed to be) just as common as English. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eiviiaru 2007-12-01 03:36 am UTC (link)
	The lack of Asians in the Firefly 'verse always bothered me. If the Chinese culture and language is really supposed to be that prevalent, where are all the Chinese people? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	squeakytoy 2007-12-01 08:38 am UTC (link)
	Maybe they all became Eurasian over time? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	brigid31 2007-12-01 01:58 am UTC (link)
	Star Trek the Next Generation uses a universal translator but there is an interesting episode called "Darmok" where all the words can be translated but because the language is based in metaphors they can't understand each other. (Reply to this)

	solesakuma 2007-12-01 02:32 am UTC (link)
	It's not SF per se but Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is a CLAMP manga about a bunch of interdimensional travellers. They all come from different 'worlds' so they speak different languages. So Mokona, the magical creature that they use to travel, serves as a automatic translator. In one occasion, when the characters ended up separated, they couldn't understand eachother. (Reply to this)

	shaggydogstail 2007-12-01 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Not proper meta as such, but there's a couple of posts about language in Doctor Who here, which have a bit of information about the TARDIS translating things and the ability of Time Lords to speak various Earth languages. (Reply to this)

rosehiptea
2007-12-01 03:01 am UTC (link)

The universal translator seems very popular for obvious reasons -- they have that in James White's Sector General novels too. (Not that they really have a fandom that I know of, unfortunately.) As sort of an aside, there's one scene where a guy is told to visit an area of the hospital (basically a big place that treats all sorts of "aliens") but warned not to turn on his translator. When he gets there he sees these patients who are beings who seem to be mostly based on light and they're conversing in a beautiful musical language. When he turns on his translator they're having a nasty whiny conversation about which one the doctor likes best.

"Ememy Mine" (read the novella, didn't see the movie) had an interesting take on a human and an alien forced to learn to converse.

There's actually a ton of stuff even more relevant (though again, not in anything with a big fandom) but it's sadly been so long since I actually read it that I can't remember enough. If anything hits me I'll come back and comment again.

(Reply to this)

	calluna 2007-12-01 03:03 am UTC (link)
	I know I saw something about this on TV Tropes... Ah, here we go: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AliensSpeakingEnglish (Reply to this)(Thread)

	hurricane 2007-12-01 04:16 am UTC (link)
	Oh, TV Tropes. ♥ Is there anything they haven't covered? ♥ (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	crysiana 2007-12-01 04:38 am UTC (link)
	Some of the things they cover go into bizarre territory, though, like their deciding that if all the Nobodies wanted to do in Kingdom Hearts 2 was get their hearts back then Sora was not in any way justified in considering them enemies and killing them. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	deconcentrate 2007-12-01 07:11 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, crap, now I'm going to end up spidering all over that Wiki for another three whole months (even when I've already read a third of the entires I'm flipping through, just in case they added something new when I wasn't looking). (Reply to this)(Parent)

	vzg 2007-12-01 10:07 am UTC (link)
	Smallville = put a crystal in the hole, learn an alien language! Only five dollars a go! (Reply to this)

	wtf 2007-12-01 07:16 pm UTC (link)
	Adding to the Star Trek pile-on... In Enterprise, which takes place before the other series, they had a human translator (Hoshi) working with the computer to translate. In Babylon 5, they explained it away as them being on a human station; they do show the Minbari language, though. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	wtf 2007-12-01 07:16 pm UTC (link)
	*languages. The Minbari had three languages. (Reply to this)(Parent)