Alien language
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An alien language is a general term for any language that might be used by putative extraterrestrial lifeforms. The study of such languages has been termed xenolinguistics or astrolinguistics (the latter typically in science fiction, though Star Trek uses exolinguistics).
The problem of alien language has confronted generations of science fiction writers; some have created fictional languages for their characters to use, while others have circumvented the problem through translation devices or other fantastic technology.
Although this field remains largely confined to science fiction, the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life makes the question of alien language a credible topic for scientific and philosophical speculation.
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[edit] Science fiction
Several science fiction stories contain some alien culture that involves language. For example, the protagonist of C.S. Lewis's novel Out of the Silent Planet is able to use his training in historical linguistics to reconstruct the languages spoken on Mars. However, it is rather implausible that the Martians would speak a form of Indo-European dialect. Likewise, the Martians of Phillip K. Dick's Martian Time Slip are somehow related to Indigenous Australians, and speak a form of pidgin English.
Some stories, however, have alien beings speak near-unpronounceable tongues. H.P. Lovecraft in one correspondence mentioned that the name Cthulhu was a feeble attempt at human transliteration. Clark Ashton Smith, in one tale, has the sorcerer Eibon struggle to articulate the name of the being Tsathoggua's uncle.
Authors with more conventional views on anthropogenesis, however, have had to take recourse to more elaborate devices - for example, Douglas Adams's babel fish, or to admit that contact may be extremely difficult, if not impossible: this is notably the case in Stanisław Lem's novels, such as Solaris, and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Perhaps the most fully-developed fictional alien language is the Klingon Language of the Star Trek universe - a fully-developed constructed language. Star Trek also features Linguacode, a picture-based communications medium used upon first contact with unknown species. Babylon 5 depicts a 'universal' language called Interlac, designed to be easy for other civilisations to decipher and use to communicate. At least some species have computers capable of translating Interlac transmissions into their native languages in real-time, allowing the easiest possible communication with other races. It is, however, possible for many species in the Babylon 5 Universe to learn each others' languages. Babylon 5's use of "Interlac" was predated by the Legion of Super-Heroes in the nineteen-sixties. The Kzinti of Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars series speak a language that sounds like cats fighting that is difficult, though possible, for humans to master. Over the course of the series the language has developed hundreds of words. Additionally, the Man-Kzin Wars novel Destiny's Forge features chapter headings written in the Kzinti dots and commas. It is suspected but not proven that author Paul Chafe has constructed the complete language underlying the script, much as J. R. R. Tolkien did for The Lord of the Rings.
DC Comics also created an entire Kryptonian alphabet and partial language for its Superman comic books.
The spoken language most often heard in the Star Wars films is Galactic Basic (actually English with some words specific to the Star Wars galaxy). The language Mando'a is a constructed language currently under development by Karen Traviss for the Star Wars universe.
The film Mars Attacks! contains unusual alien language spoken by the Martians that consists only of the words "ack!" and "rack!" spoken at different pitches and volume.
In the film and book Close Encounters of the Third Kind, scientists use music to communicate with alien visitors.
The television show Futurama has two alien languages; the first directly substitutes characters of the Latin alphabet (Called Alienese or Alien Language 1), while the second is a modular addition code, called Beta-Crypt Three.
In the film and book Contact, aliens send the instructions to build a machine to reach them through Mathematics, which the main character calls "the only universal language".
[edit] Science fact
There is continued debate over whether extraterrestrial life exists, or whether mankind has ever made contact with alien civilisations; as of 2006, no substantiable examples of extraterrestrial communication have been shown to exist. Moreover, programmes in this field such as SETI leave questions to be answered: if alien language did exist, and if we could pick it up, could we identify it as such? If so, could we ever hope to comprehend it? Some accounts of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language would cast doubt on these possibilities. Ludwig Wittgenstein, for example, once wrote that "if a lion could speak, we would not be able to understand him." On the other hand, many referentialist and verificationist accounts of language would make this gap seem more bridgeable. Willard Van Orman Quine also advanced the thesis of the indeterminacy of translation, according to which any hypothesis of translation could be defended only by appeal to context, by determining what other sentences a native would utter.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- A Primer In SF XENOLINGUISTICS, by Justin B. Rye
- "Omnilingual", by H. Beam Piper by Tenser, said the Tensor
