Re: the Language of Firefly

personally, i love what this show does with language - it's a mix of
reasonable changes, fun changes, and things that are current among at
least my group of nerdy friends (though i don't know which way the
influence has gone in that case.  we use "shiny" *a lot*.)

and that example of kaylee... it's mostly her way of speaking, i'd say.

can't wait for the movie!  /silly fan.

kit

Rodlox R said:
> thoughts?
>
> http://www.geocities.com/rodlox/Firefly/language.html
>
> the text is as follows (minus the italics)
>
>
> THE LANGUAGE OF FIREFLY
>
> Not being a professional linguist, I won’t claim that this is the come-all
> or be-all of language sites even where it concerns Firefly. All I intend
> to
> do is to lay out several examples of how the languages of Firefly differ
> from our own.
>
> First, a bit of introduction, for those who do not know what Firefly is.
> Firefly is a tv series (and an upcoming movie – Serenity) which takes
> place
> 500 years in the future. Mankind is the only intelligent species, and
> Earth
> is the only planet which gave birth to life – but humans have expanded
> throughout this galaxy, terraforming planets and large moons, making them
> fit places to live). The predominant language in Firefly, in fact, the
> only
> one we viewers hear, is a blend of English and Chinese.
>
> One can pardon the language(s) not changing too too much – otherwise, we
> viewers wouldn’t understand a word of what was being said. But this
> website
> will examine some of the things that are different.
>
> Any help, assistance, and-or contributions would be more than welcome.
>
> CHINESE:
> Whereas modern Chinese says “Ni dong ma” to say “You understand? You not
> understand?” as one person translated for me…in Firefly, they have dropped
> the “ni,” having only “dong ma?”
>
> (other examples?)
>
> ENGLISH:
> English in the ‘verse seems to have lost many of its context indicators.
> For
> example, in the following scene from the episode ‘Shindig’…
>
> Kaylee and the rest of the crew are walking through town, and stop in
> front
> of a dress shop. Kaylee says “Ooh, look at the pretties!” admiring the
> fancy
> dresses.
>
> Note that Kaylee does not say “Ooh, look at the pretty dresses,” she
> simply
> says to look at the “pretties.”
>
> Another matter, and I’m not sure what transpired to cause it, is the use
> of
> the word “shiny.” Its varied uses include – when a machine is working just
> fine, “its shiny;” and when events in life turn out for the best, that too
> is considered “shiny.”
> ---------------
>
> thoughts?
>

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