I always thought it was incredibly absurd that a language would be based on such analogies until memes took over our discourse
Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
Submitted 11 months ago by Lydia_K@startrek.website to risa@startrek.website
https://startrek.website/pictrs/image/20db3bc6-01b9-49a4-beac-be6fdbd85dfd.jpeg
Comments
makyo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
MelodiousFunk@startrek.website 11 months ago
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Cat, at the table.
TrippaSnippa@aussie.zone 11 months ago
Butterfly, the man’s hand outstretched.
Xariphon@kbin.social 11 months ago
I always thought of "Shaka, when the walls fell," as indicating a state of shock, disbelief, or otherwise not understanding what you're witnessing, more so than failure.
Honestly I love interpreting Tamarian meme-speak...
theforkofdamocles@beehaw.org 11 months ago
Shaka is a place, right? So the city was destroyed, or otherwise taken over and no longer part of the prior culture’s territory.
That’s my take, anyway.
Xariphon@kbin.social 11 months ago
I thought it was a person, witnessing the fall of his city.
ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website 11 months ago
Shaka is implied to be a person.
teft@startrek.website 11 months ago
Imagine if Dathon was actually this articulate but he was just trying to teach Picard a lesson.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 11 months ago
I think half of the episode is the Tamarians genuinely struggling with human language. If the federations translation software wasn’t up to the task, it isn’t surprising that the Tamarian’s software wasn’t up for it either.
kemsat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“Twitter, after Elon’s purchase.”
trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
I am of the opinion that these ‘before/after’ memes about twitter are disingenuous because that website has always been a heaping pile of shit and the vast majority of people on it don’t have the mental acumen to actually reflect or critically think on most subjects, and that’s a happy spin on how twitter was before musk bought it.
If anything he just unleashed the fools from every ‘group’ that masterfully fail at grasping even the most basic explanation of nuance and tried to cash in on it (and failed in one of the most typical ways a formerly public company could fail, under the weight of sheer ineptitude).
Skaryon@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Neunzigtausend!!!
cannibalkitteh@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
That episode always kinda bothered me, because the universal translator was able to make English phrases out of it, which suggests a base language that would have to exist for the Tamarians themselves to understand their language. Surely, they could have shared some set of learning matirials that they would use to educate their young?
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 11 months ago
How would the Tamarians ever develop any advanced technology? Can you imagine an engineering discussion in Tamarian? Like, what is the word for capacitor? “Edward, when he enclosed conductive foil and electrolyte in a metal cylinder”? What would a Tamarian technical manual even look like?
morhp@lemmy.wtf 11 months ago
I mean, they seem to have basic grammar for items and people and actions (“eyes”, “walls”, “fell”), it’s possible that they only use that weird allegory reference pattern when speaking formally to strangers or whatever. It’s also possible that their language in the original version makes more sense and is more practical and it just gets mangled by the universal translator.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Edward, he held the flood back.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 11 months ago
They may have tried that in the past to no avail. The episode specifically mentions there was several failed attempts at first contact.
rtxn@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Take a look at the Pioneer spacecrafts’ plaques. NASA scientists have broken down our abstract expression of distance to language-agnostic universal constants. I refuse to believe that a space-faring civilization with friendly intentions wouldn’t do everything in its power to find a common language, no matter how far removed from their spoken language.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 11 months ago
The translator is able to translate the words themselves, but not the context needed to actually understand the translated phrases.
rtxn@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“Our communication happens through references to well-documented historical events and figures, but still uses the same vocabulary and grammar as the federation and most of the galaxy’s civilizations. Maybe we should share a short summary with the captain, to assist in establishing relations.”
“No, I wanna wrassle the monster!”
Zellith@kbin.social 11 months ago
They should have sent the federation their history books. The only thing missing from the language is context. The fact that they speak in metaphors means that these stories exist somewhere for them to be referenced.
flicker@kbin.social 11 months ago
The thing is... do they? We don't know that they're actually referencing anything at all. I always thought that, once you got the vibe, you could contribute to the conversation with the phrasing and use the implied story of the phrase for the context.
I might say to you, "Kyle, when Janet left him." You don't need to know who Kyle or Janet are to infer that this might not be a good thing. Alternatively, I might say that, and mime like I'm wiping sweat from my brow as of relieved, and it might change the meaning.
We have no real way of knowing what history they might be referring to. Or if there even is one.
Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 11 months ago
That’s assuming that they could understand Federation text books, and that their metaphor based thinking wouldn’t make it nigh impossible for them.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Their captain sacrificed his life so that we could communicate with them, and we never saw them again for the entirety of the show.
frezik@midwest.social 11 months ago
There was this other time they discovered a whole fucking Dyson Sphere, and then promptly forgot about it.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
frankly i feel that most social species should be able to create a pidgin even if they have basically nothing else in common.
like… if we can communicate basic things with bears and deer, i think the idea that we somehow wouldn’t be able to communicate at all with aliens is a bit wack