Stargates & diplomatic incidents
Okay, I may be working from fanon here, but the SGA eps seem to support this. As I understand it, the gates in Pegasus and (after some reprogramming by Sam?) the Milky Way will teach you the spoken forms of a planet/moon's language as you go through. Not the written language, and not the societal mores/customs/tells, but you'll be able to understand people on the planet of arrival.
Except that raises the question of what, precisely, you learn. It's like the old SF (Star Wars, I'm looking at you) where entire planets had the same weather, but in this case, the odds of one planet having the same one language are extremely slim. Until standardized Italian was started, different regions had very different languages. China had multiple dialects but one written language; modern Nigeria has one official language, 3 more recognized national languages, and 6 more recognized regional languages. So... which language does the Gate know? The languages in the minds around it, or the languages of the minds that went through it? And how does it decide what language(s) to give you?
For that matter, if say, an SGC member returns to Earth via the Gate... do the Russians suddenly acquire fluent English (the most common language of those who've gone through that Gate lately), or do the Americans come home fluent in English... and French, Czeck, Polish, Russian, Japanese, and every other language that's gone through? Daniel speaks, what, 23 live languages and 7 or 8 dead ones? Not always well, but he speaks them. Given that the military gives bonuses for test-proven fluency in more than one language, that could get expensive.
Also, given some of the stuff the Ancients built (body-swaps? really?), and some of their... misconceptions about people acting like people (Daniel hated that 'hands off' rule for the Ascended), I can all too easily see them having a Gate teach the *wrong* language. No one's gone in the gate in 800 years due to a religious dispute, say, or the Black Plague wiped out the locals... so you come out speaking the equivalent of middle-English in a now-Gaelic culture and wondering why no one understands you. Or showing up speaking the language of the colonizing culture in a recently revolution-overturned world. Or just the problem of coming out, trying to do the 'we come in peace' and going, "Oh, great, 8 new languages -- let's smile and see which one the natives use." At that point, you hope it's not like the guard in 1969 asking Daniel in Russian if they're spies and getting an automatic answer in Russian.
Those are the ones I can come up with immediately, off the top of my head. All of which is to say, boy, could this go wrong. (See LJ entry for story idea...)
(Gone on a date for now; back online tomorrow.)
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Except that raises the question of what, precisely, you learn. It's like the old SF (Star Wars, I'm looking at you) where entire planets had the same weather, but in this case, the odds of one planet having the same one language are extremely slim. Until standardized Italian was started, different regions had very different languages. China had multiple dialects but one written language; modern Nigeria has one official language, 3 more recognized national languages, and 6 more recognized regional languages. So... which language does the Gate know? The languages in the minds around it, or the languages of the minds that went through it? And how does it decide what language(s) to give you?
For that matter, if say, an SGC member returns to Earth via the Gate... do the Russians suddenly acquire fluent English (the most common language of those who've gone through that Gate lately), or do the Americans come home fluent in English... and French, Czeck, Polish, Russian, Japanese, and every other language that's gone through? Daniel speaks, what, 23 live languages and 7 or 8 dead ones? Not always well, but he speaks them. Given that the military gives bonuses for test-proven fluency in more than one language, that could get expensive.
Also, given some of the stuff the Ancients built (body-swaps? really?), and some of their... misconceptions about people acting like people (Daniel hated that 'hands off' rule for the Ascended), I can all too easily see them having a Gate teach the *wrong* language. No one's gone in the gate in 800 years due to a religious dispute, say, or the Black Plague wiped out the locals... so you come out speaking the equivalent of middle-English in a now-Gaelic culture and wondering why no one understands you. Or showing up speaking the language of the colonizing culture in a recently revolution-overturned world. Or just the problem of coming out, trying to do the 'we come in peace' and going, "Oh, great, 8 new languages -- let's smile and see which one the natives use." At that point, you hope it's not like the guard in 1969 asking Daniel in Russian if they're spies and getting an automatic answer in Russian.
Those are the ones I can come up with immediately, off the top of my head. All of which is to say, boy, could this go wrong. (See LJ entry for story idea...)
(Gone on a date for now; back online tomorrow.)
Original post on Dreamwidth | Leave a comment on DW | Read
comments on DW