tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post7193981138194441311..comments2024-03-16T11:09:05.148-07:00Comments on TalkToYoUniverse: Language Barriers - a Worldbuilding Hangout ReportJuliette Wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-80965429827089571332013-09-22T12:29:13.409-07:002013-09-22T12:29:13.409-07:00That sounds interesting. I like that you're at...That sounds interesting. I like that you're at least giving the nod to internal sub-ingredients of the process, and not making it be entirely easy to have one's brain rearranged! Thanks for the comment. :)Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-11350330709100257592013-09-21T20:01:19.254-07:002013-09-21T20:01:19.254-07:00Deceptive cognates. Gotta love them.Deceptive cognates. Gotta love them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-15915018050716550902013-09-21T20:00:55.244-07:002013-09-21T20:00:55.244-07:00I do have one people that use mind-reading (you ca...I do have one people that use mind-reading (you can consider it telepathy, but in this world the two gifts have different underlying functionality) to acquire new languages, but it's not a magic bullet. The mindreader has to actually go collect all the language information and generally prefers to have three or four speakers to collate into a "dialect" and several "register" buckets. Then she passes it to her cyberpathic twin who codes a computer translator in his head which he uploads to a computer.<br /><br />To pass along the language to anyone else, she has her brother decide which dialects and registers to mix, which he passes back to her, and then she essentially melds minds with the person she's giving the language to and rewrites it into their native language brain structures. Anyone undergoing language aquisition is advised to take three to four days to rest and get over the extreme disorientation of their experience of the world being completely off from what it was before.<br /><br />The underlying difference with a mindreader in this world (which is why telepaths can't do this) is that a telepath reads and broadcasts thoughts; a mindreader convinces the other mind that the two minds are one and the same and so registers everything literally as if they are the same person.<br /><br />Sounds complicated, but that was what made sense to me and I hope it sidesteps a lot of the problems with telepathic translation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-72407962100035087792013-09-20T18:30:31.755-07:002013-09-20T18:30:31.755-07:00Indeed! I have been caught by that one before - th...Indeed! I have been caught by that one before - though fortunately I was in class, and had it kindly explained. :)Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-44885546203725338472013-09-20T17:16:31.822-07:002013-09-20T17:16:31.822-07:00One potential source of humor are words that are s...One potential source of humor are words that are similar enough sounding in two languages to cause embarrassment when someone assumes they mean the same in both.<br /><br />The Spanish word embarazada is an example. If an English speaker says "Estoy embarazada" thinking it means he or she is embarrassed about something...<br /><br />E.L. Wagnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05631080231126783838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-58676527124634077882013-09-20T16:54:11.301-07:002013-09-20T16:54:11.301-07:00I've been trapped by that assumption more than...I've been trapped by that assumption more than once. French and English direct translations are not uniformly predictable.Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-56496008732265358872013-09-20T16:30:25.442-07:002013-09-20T16:30:25.442-07:00A month or so ago, on Usenet there was a Frenchman...A month or so ago, on Usenet there was a Frenchman who explained a mistake in English by saying that he assumed if a word existed in both French and English, it meant the same in both.<br /><br />Offhand, I'd say this was too strange for finction.Dan Goodmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10204816150574102224noreply@blogger.com