 Monthly Archives
Categories
Star Trek and Xenolinguistics
WARNING: We're about to get really, really nerdy. Anyone with a passion for languages knows that it's nearly impossible to leave that passion at home. You hear a language on the street, you try to discern what it could be. You hear a word that might be derived from a language you know, and spend a few minutes tracing the route it might have taken to get there. Even sitting in a movie theater with an overpriced bucket of popcorn in your lap watching the most recent Star Trek film will give you something to ponder about language, as I discovered this past Sunday. Those of you who have had the pleasure of seeing the newest Star Trek film will know that in the film's alternate reality, the character of Uhura studied xenolinguistics at the Starfleet Academy, allowing her to gain knowledge of all three dialects of Romulan. Kirk, trying to impress her, showed he knew what xenolinguistics was all about: study of alien languages, morphology, phonology, and syntax. (In the television show, Uhura was in fact the communications officer, indicating she probably had some knowledge of alien languages, unless she was using a universal translator. Am I exposing my inner nerd enough yet?) My first thought: why did it need to be qualified as "xenolinguistics"? Why not just "linguistics"? Surely when/if we get to the point where we're working side by side with people from different planets on the deck of a starship, we'd consider each new language just an addition to the fabric of languages we already understand. Would the Faculty of Linguistics be divided into Xenolinguistics and Gaialinguistics? Even more perplexing to me in the film was why Captain Nero didn't communicate with his crew in Romulan. I was probably the only person in the theater on that particular day bothered by this, but I can't be the only person in the world who thinks it would have been interesting to experience some of this language. (The linked site is proof that science fiction aficionados take their xenolinguistics very seriously.) Either way, it was great to see language plays a part even in an imagined future. If anything, it gave me something interesting to think about in between explosions and Vulcan jokes. And who knows? Maybe someday we'll boldly go where no one has gone before and release a Complete Course: Romulan. Though trying to teach all three dialects might be a challenge... (Back on earth: As Kirk discovered late in the film, Uhura's first name is Nyota, the Swahili word for "star." Her last name is derived from the Swahili word "uhuru," which means "freedom.") (SUZANNE) Tags: Romulan, Star Trek, Swahili, xenolinguistics
|
|||
