Re: Difficult language ideas

>From: "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...>
>Regarding this, and idioms, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned
>that Star Trek episode.  I can't remember the famous phrase, but
>it's something like "Darmok and Jelad at Tanagra", and that's
>supposed to mean something.  As far as I can tell, the language
>that this alien culture has *can* be translated by the Universal
>Translator, but the aliens choose to use mainly proper names, so
>what gets translated has no meaning.  (Of course, the UT should
>be able to get something out of this, but we can ignore that for
>now...)
>

There is, of course, the other obvious question about a language of this
type:  how do they tell the stories in the first place if they have no
actual storytelling language to build the metaphors *from*?  In a "Darmok"
language, how would the starship engineer tell her lackey to "tighten that
third bolt from the left"?  But that's a different discussion.

But to my point:  I've been interested for a while in the possibility that
this paradigm could apply to a human culture.  Judeo-Christian culture also
has a large number of stories to draw from.  For example, I could say
something like, "Noah, when the rains came!".  And depending on context,
that could be taken to communicate the concept of staying the course when
nobody else understands you ... on up to, "take shelter, quick!  Hurricane's
a-comin'!"

Another interesting side-speculation:  would different languages in a
"Darmok" culture represent different religions by extension?  Here in the
real world, the Noah's Ark story is shared by Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam (different "dialects", one could say), but would be totally
meaningless to Buddhists and Hindus.  Could such a culture develop religious
cults?

Thoughts, anyone?

:Chris

Reply