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

I just had this thought...

What if I get stuck on a planet and I have a Babel fish in my ear... I can understand the language of the local lifeforms, but they cannot understand me, and I don't have any spare Babel fish!
Now, how would I learn to communicate when everything I hear is automatically translated by the Babel fish? Would I hear their actual language at all?

From what I understand you whould only hear your own language being secreted from the fish, but I believe the babel fish is extractable. If you could take it out you could listen to some gibberish, then put it back in and gradually build up the language, or if you dont mind sharing a fish you could pass it round and have a conversation with anyone. This does depend on the aliens having ears or equivelent but the chances of finding a race whose language has developed similar to ours (i.e contains roughly 26 different sounds) are slim so a conversation would probably not happen.
My advice would be to use body language, i.e two fingers and run away if they pull out some kind of weapon and smiling broadly if offered a cup of tea.

Of course, take the little fella out! makes perfect sense!
cheers...

Che cosa se rimango incastrato su un pianeta ed io hanno un Babelfish in mio orecchio… Posso capire la lingua dei lifeforms locali, ma non possono capire me e la I don' la t ha tutto il Babelfish di ricambio! Ora, come imparerei comunicare quando tutto che sentissi è tradotto automaticamente dal Babelfish? Sentirei la loro lingua reale affatto?

.....................

Ten years late, but...

"language has developed similar to ours (i.e contains roughly 26 different sounds)"

26 letters, yes - but much, much more sounds than that! Don't forget combinations producing new sounds, and letters having more than one sound.

If the Babel fish is anything like its internet incarnation, though, best off without it anyway.

*Many* more sounds. Is there a grammar fish I can get?

aaah eeeh oooh

Perhaps communication will improve on Saturday.
Friday 7 February is not a good (weather) forecast.

>> Is there a grammar fish I can get? <<

Yes there are many more than 26 sounds but not THAT many.

But after the age of one year it's damn near impossible to hear or learn the ones not included in one's native language.

I read recently that there are 93 basic phonoms in all the earthly languages and that infants can hear and distinguish every one of them. An infant can be raised in any language.

But because they are generally learning their native language their brains begin to shut down any comprehension of the unnecessary forms as they begin to organize their vocalizations around the age of 12 months.

A 2 year old (and beyond) Japanese child simply cannot register or reproduce the sound of the letter R while the French child hears and reproduces at least three variations of it. No one has been allowed close enough to a Scots baby to answer the next obvious question.


~j~

I'm sure the Japanese people in my school would disagree with that. Certainly it's much harder to learn the new sounds, but not impossible.

Like I said "damn near impossible".
My greetings and blessings and compliments to those in your school, who will agree if you dare ask them, that they represent a very small percentage of their race. I am confident they will also admit to a high degree of diffirculty.


~j~

No, you said: "A 2 year old (and beyond) Japanese child simply cannot register or reproduce the sound..."

Cannot as in unable, impossible, without any chance whatsoever of succeeding. Which, as I've demonstrated, is untrue.

"Friday 7 February is not a good (weather) forecast."

It's not a good date either, there isn't one until 2014. At best, any forecast for then is likely to be inaccurate. At worst guesswork.



PP

>>It's not a good date either, there isn't one until 2014.<<
Correct!
I realised after I'd posted that it should have been the 6th. February.
Just goes to prove that I'm human, and not God.
I wonder what else I'm wrong about

For the sake of argument, your reasoning:

>> Cannot as in unable, impossible, without any chance whatsoever of succeeding. <<

fails to include the important fact that I was talking about a two year old. Obviously any well educated and fondly nurtured child has the potential to grow into a self directing and self determining adult capable of almost anything. I for example once had no patience with sophistry.


~j~

To quote further: "A 2 year old (AND BEYOND) Japanese child...."

"...and beyond..."

Yes, obviously the condition would and does persist if conditions and opportunities are not presented which allow the child to remedy (if remedy is necessarily the right word) the nature of his brain to focus solely on realities necessary to successful adaptation to his own culture.

Your friends, have had the opportunity, the means and the perseverance to re-adapt themselves to learn from other cultures. And as I say, god bless them, but do not use such a small sample to judge a more universal truth about our species ability to adapt when the vigorous nature of childhood survival traits passes.

For indeed some of the 93 phonoms are beyond the trilling of the letter R. They include clicks and throat warbles used in several African tongues which in spite of any education, love or even the most earnest and sincere desire to learn, have become impossible for anyone not raised in that culture to comprehend or reproduce. Yes I said impossible without qualification in these cases.

Neither you nor I, raised in an English (or any other non-African) speaking environment, no matter our intelligence or capabilities, could ever master these phonoms if we had not begun to emulate them as infants. They are cultural brandings like bound feet, flattened foreheads or extended labia, designed to instill an impossible barrier between the 'them' and 'us' of certain cultures.

peace
~j~

>>designed to instill an impossible barrier between the 'them' and 'us' of certain cultures<<

DESIGNED? Surely those languages *evolved* differently because they were only used by one group that didn't have contact with other groups?

Basically, you're just saying "Foreigners talk funny deliberately just to be incomprehensible"

>> Basically, you're just saying "Foreigners talk funny deliberately just to be incomprehensible" <<

Yes. Ever tried to talk to a teenager lately?

~jwf~

Hey, I'm still just under 25, so I can probably translate teenagerish for you

Just like every band needs a bass player so the musicians can use him to communicate with the drummer