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What language does Jake Sisko speak? he grew up on starships, that presumbly had people of many different species talking their native languages that the UT translated to whatever language was the users' native, except, well... kids dont exactly have a native language, they pick up whatever they're taught, and since, well, no one is teaching language... worse, Naomi! she's half human half Ktarian. Is her "native" language english, or whatever the Ktarians use? she needs language lessons before the UT can help her understand exactly what , say, neelix, is saying to her. Because Neelix doesn't need to know english to communicate with the mostly-human crew, except naomi, who wasn't born knowing the english language, unless the UT also handles "Baby", like how The Doctor 'speaks baby'.

Jake speaks English, of course. So does Naomi.

I generally assume everyone speaks English unless otherwise stated.

Graham Kennedy wrote:Jake speaks English, of course. So does Naomi.

I generally assume everyone speaks English unless otherwise stated.

we should ask what happens to the UT when the Klingons launch their battle cry ^_^

There are some weird instances with language. Like in Sins of the Father, when Word asks Picard to be his cha'DIch, Picard responds in Klingon. And then translates it into English. Why? Not so Worf could understand it, surely, and Worf was the only other person there!

The only approximation of what could really be a universal translator we have seen in Enterprise (need i say more?) and not always...

"Native" language isn't based on the ancestry of the subject, but of the environment in which he was raised. My ancestry is Polish, Galician, and Austrian... but nobody seems to question that my native language is English.

Aside from the fact that language evolves over the years to the point where us would have a difficulty understanding what they are saying even though it is still technically English?

Does make you wonder if everyone on the Enterprise is talking English as their native language or it's being translated.

That and why do some people have accents when aliens have an American accent?

McAvoy wrote:Does make you wonder if everyone on the Enterprise is talking English as their native language or it's being translated.

They actually did say that they are speaking English in TOS. When they met Cochrane he said "You speak English. Earth people?"

I think that means the UT is working. Not every race will have a UT on them. I also would imagine the UT would work perfectly on any Earth language.

Then again I have not seen the episode in awhile so I don't know the context.

It could easily be that Cochrane rognized the lip movements matched what they were saying. I know real life they couldn't have aliens making different lip movements when they are speaking English.

Later on, they explain the UT to him like this :

Cochrane : "What's the theory behind this device?"
Kirk : "There are certain universal ideas and concepts common to all intelligent life. This device instantaneously compares the frequency of brainwave patterns, selects those ideas and concepts it recognises, and then provides the necessary grammar."
Spock : "Then it translates its findings into English."

practically read your mind?

Sounds like it.

There was a early DS9 episode where a virus was scrabbling their brains so they spoke gibberish and the UT couldn't translate it.

Also makes sense that the UT can figure out when to translate and when not to. As in speaking English and then speaking Klingon.

McAvoy wrote:Sounds like it.

There was a early DS9 episode where a virus was scrabbling their brains so they spoke gibberish and the UT couldn't translate it.

Also makes sense that the UT can figure out when to translate and when not to. As in speaking English and then speaking Klingon.

Thats a good point actually, always been a bug bear for me that translation is done sometimes and not others. Obvously, OOU, it's all for effect but IU I can imagine the the intention of the speaker is taken into account.

Honestly, the language thing is one area where I can just say it's something the writers do because otherwise they'd spend half the show mucking about with language instead of telling the story, so it's never going to make any logical sense and there's not a whole lot of point trying to work out any kind of consistent approach.

I suppose Trek could do a Game of Thrones, where significant chunks of it are in invented alien languages subtitled for the audience. Where every time they meet a new alien race, there have to be scenes where they try and work out translations of the language or whatever. Personally I think it would get old pretty quick - look at how awful the Klingon language scenes in Discovery were.

I'm perfectly fine with them just having everyone speak English 99% of the time and then sprinkle a little Klingon or Vulcan here and there just to give it some flavour. The UT is an excuse to do that, and I don't really care that it makes no sense.

McAvoy wrote:Sounds like it.

There was a early DS9 episode where a virus was scrabbling their brains so they spoke gibberish and the UT couldn't translate it.

Also makes sense that the UT can figure out when to translate and when not to. As in speaking English and then speaking Klingon.

The UT has a drama sensor'. So it won't translate Klingonese, forcing a character to provide the translation for a suitably dramatic moment.

Graham Kennedy wrote:Honestly, the language thing is one area where I can just say it's something the writers do because otherwise they'd spend half the show mucking about with language instead of telling the story, so it's never going to make any logical sense and there's not a whole lot of point trying to work out any kind of consistent approach.

I suppose Trek could do a Game of Thrones, where significant chunks of it are in invented alien languages subtitled for the audience. Where every time they meet a new alien race, there have to be scenes where they try and work out translations of the language or whatever. Personally I think it would get old pretty quick - look at how awful the Klingon language scenes in Discovery were.

I'm perfectly fine with them just having everyone speak English 99% of the time and then sprinkle a little Klingon or Vulcan here and there just to give it some flavour. The UT is an excuse to do that, and I don't really care that it makes no sense.

Exactly! It's prefectly all right to say, "This is for the convenience of the story, so it doesn't get bogged down in something." Honestly, people really do get over-obsessed sometimes with trying to do in-universe explanations for everything!