h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At first, I wondered if the language offered was real one. It could have been a made-up language, or a coded message that would become English once you figured out what the code was. By the third or fourth one, I realized that French and German were being offered. *Modern* French and German, in a culture that predated the modern era by three or more millennia. No wonder the people were mixed up .

This is really fun.

Well, it's fantasy. In an alternate universe. And I was too lazy to look up a lot of dead languages I don't speak, and the dead languages I DO know (a dozen of them, maybe) weren't around back then...so I went for modern ones and messed around.

Glad you liked it.

Nice chapter.

I would advise against kissing a camel, even after eating a lot of chocolate on a sand dune.

Lucky me who can understand Dutch, German, French, English. I'll give the other ones a go to see what I missed.

With the help of St.Google I figured out most of the others. (Kurdish, Hindi, Arab, Croatian) The second speaker's language remains a mystery though. So if you want to repeat the trick in the present day, I would choose that one to start with.

I agree. I knew which one it was when I translated it and then got a transliteration, but darned if I remember what it was. Definitely a language in the general area...

I found out it is also Arab. The trouble is that it transliterates slightly different into Dutch, which is what google translate probably expects from me. It guessed Finnish instead.

It did that to me when I tried to back-translate it, too. I could have sworn it was intended to be Arabic, instructions to move the ladder.

Great chapter!

Thanks!