Lost In Translation—Tuvok and Neelix Can Speak English


Are they really speaking English on Star Trek, or does it just appear that way for the sake of the 20th/21st century audience?

We can't necessarily trust our ears, since the Universal Translator may simply be translating for us as the 20th/21st century audience. 

But an exchange between Neelix and Tuvok strongly indicates that it truly is English being spoken on Starfleet ships in the 24th century.

A Riddle that Solves the Riddle

The episode "Riddles" (VOY) starts and ends with two alternate punchlines for the same riddle:

NEELIX: Okay, here goes. A lone Ensign finds himself stranded on a class L planetoid with no rations. His only possession, a calendar. When Starfleet finds him twelve months later, he's in perfect health. Why didn't he starve to death?

TUVOK: It is a theoretical possibility that such planetoids contain hot water springs, which could sustain the man for several weeks.

NEELIX: But not for a whole year.

TUVOK: I concur. Logic dictates that the Ensign in question would perish.

NEELIX: Ah ha, ha ha! I stumped you. As a matter of fact, he not only survived, but his belly was full. Why? Because he feasted on dates from the calendar.

TUVOK: Your answer is merely wordplay, it has no basis in reality. 

In the closing scene Tuvok engages in some wordplay of his own:

TUVOK: I have given further consideration to your riddle regarding the Ensign who survived by consuming the dates from his calendar. It occurs to me that he could also have eaten the Sundaes.

NEELIX: That's a very clever answer, Mister Vulcan, But it's not very logical, is it? 

TUVOK: No, it's not.

What's remarkable here is that we have two non-human characters making a joke that depends on an English homonym (dates, the fruit / dates, days of the month) and an English homophone (Sundays/Sundaes).

In fact, three of those four words would have no direct equivalent in Vulcan or Talaxian. Two are foods native to Earth (dates and sundaes), and another is an English day of the week from an ancient Earth calendar system (Sunday).

The riddle just wouldn't work in most other Earth languages, let alone in an alien language.

The implication: Tuvok and Neelix were not relying on their native languages or the Universal Translator in those scenes. They were engaging in English wordplay. English is the lingua franca both aliens have learned and use to communicate with each other. 

Tuvok has has had around century to learn English by this point and even Neelix has been on Voyager more than five years by this episode. Plenty of time to pick up some English words (especially food related words).

More Wordplay. More Evidence of English.

There are other instances of English-specific wordplay that strengthen the argument that English has become the dominant language spoken on Starfleet ships: 

  • The use of "sun" vs. "son" in "Bread and Circuses", TOS.
  • Kirk's slip of the tongue—"LDS" vs. "LSD" (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
  • Neelix mispronounces jalapeño a way typical of an English-speaker/reader. ("Message in a Bottle", VOY)
  • Neelix says "pierogies." This is clearly Anglicized because in the original Polish "pierogi" is already plural. No 's' should be added to the end. ("Homestead", VOY) (For the record, pierog is singular, but no one ever eats just one.)
  • Lura Thok's line which was certainly not Klingon or Dominionese: "They shenaned once! They'll shenan again!" ("Vitus Reflux", Starfleet Academy)

What other instances of English word play have you come across in Star Trek? Drop your observations in the comments.

Clicking these links helps support my site at no extra cost to you. I mat earn a small commission on purchases. 

Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D™ LEGO Seticon

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's in a Unimatrix?

Image
Earlier, while discussing the fractal-like organization of the Borg collective , I raised the following issue: On the Matter of Unimatricies - The term Unimatrix has been thrown around as a unit or division within the collective. Each unimatrix is a miniature collective, much as I have described above. We know that the Unicomplex is called Unimatrix 001. Beyond that, I am not certain if the term has been used consistently enough to be precisely defined. Is each Borg ship a Unimatrix, or does a Unimatrix encompass multiple ships? In other words, where does a Unimatrix fit in the layers of collectives? Any thoughts or observations on this would be appreciated. Recently I saw "Dark Frontier" ( VOY ) again and drew a significant conclusion: I don't think the writers had any clue what a Unimatrix is. The episode manages to use the term in at least two different and seemingly contradictory ways. In the opening sequence the Borg "coffin" ship says, "A vessel has...
Read more

Lost in Translation — Star Trek XI

Image
I finally saw the new Star Trek movie tonight. While I take time to collect my thoughts on the new film as a whole let me comment on one little aspect of it - matters of translation. Interestingly the credits mention a Romulan and Vulcan Language Supervisor (or Consultant or some such title). However after my first viewing of the film I have to say I didn't notice any Vulcan being spoken, and I only noticed what was presumably a little Romulan shouting when Kirk and Spock beam over to Nero's ship. Perhaps there were more such moments than I realized. That being said, the basic issues of translation among alien races is acknowledged from the very beginning. From the moment Uhura is introduced to Kirk, it is clear that she is more than just a subspace-ham-radio operator. She is a linguistic expert - move over Hoshi Sato! Unlike her counterpart in the original timeline, who couldn't seem to speak Klingon if her life depended on it, this Uhura is eavesdropping on and translat...
Read more

Lost in Translation—Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Image
Up to this point we have analyzed the inner workings of the Universal Translator—how pattern analysis and neural analysis might allow the device to work. Now, let’s discuss the outer workings of the device—how users would interact with it. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country does a nice job of showing translation at work, with out letting it get in the way of the story. In the process there are some scenes that illustrate the realities of using a translation device. To Subtitle, or Not to Subtitle One interesting scene starts with the Federation president communicating with Azetbur over subspace. We hear the conversation in English. When their conversation ends, Azetbur’s aide unrolls a map on her desk and begins talking to her in Klingon. We see English subtitles. Either she was actually speaking to the President in English, or we were hearing things through the President’s UT. But when the Klingons speak privately, they logically are speaking their own language. After this has ...
Read more