Breaking down the sci-fi genre

[Penforhire]

I think the origin of separate languages is distance (thinking of several arguments written in Guns, Germs, and Steel). With instant worldwide communication the issue seems more inertia than distance. Same reason we Americans haven't really adopted the metric system. Seems to me a far future SF novel has to pick one of two paths. If galactic communication is instant then a common language is reasonable. If not, or some group is intentionally isolated or nationalist (the trope of the Japanese colonists and the American colonists), then there might be a common trading language but local dialects would have reason to continue.

[fjtorres]

Distance and ease/frequency of contact would factor in, as well as the backstory.

A milieau where a single society colonizes multiple worlds over a short period of time and the colonies then maintained frequent communication with each other would be expected to *maintain* a common language, whereas less frequent contact would allow for drift and eventual differentiation, requiring a trade language instead of a universal language.

Conversely, a diaspora milieau, with different precursor societies would start with different languages and either evolve a common lingua franca if one did not exist but frequent contact required it or might make do with a trade language instead.

It's going to depend on the scenario the author chooses and how thorough their followthrough. And, of course; relevance. A lot of stories don't need to answer any questions about language if its not relevant to the story.

If you have Dick Seaton gallivanting across the cosmos meeting dozens of cultures, language issues will matter. If you have Kim Kinnison, with his lens, language won't matter a bit; only how many pirates ships he blows up.

[Ekaros]

Still if communication was easy and frequent, majority wouldn't be doing it. Just look at different dialects of English today like British, Indian, Australian and American. One or two are more present due to current entertainment and economical reasons. I believe the effects of these would be much smaller if we were speaking of more distanced areas with even less traffic between them. Only with instantaneous and easy travel there would be one universal language, and I personally remember just one book with such.

Trade language is most likely, and it will likely change based on most powerful force present.

Still, I don't have any idea how this goes with original topic ;D

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

Still, I don't have any idea how this goes with original topic ;D

This is an... evolving... thread.
And it seems to be evolving towards deconstructing the genres of SF.
And since deconstruction more or less equals breaking down...

(Why not go with the flow? It beats beating the usual dead horses! We now have a new dead horse!)

As to the english variants and dialects, they originated *before* modern communications. So they're mostly "legacy" variants.
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/ll/3084/

Now, if the Global English movement continues, we'll soon see another variant that might get annointed as the semi-official world trade language.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/ar...pagewanted=all

Who knows? Maybe globish will beget Solarian which will evolve into Galactic.

(Or maybe Galactic will develp out of Spanglish/inglanyol. )

[Ekaros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

As to the english variants and dialects, they originated *before* modern communications. So they're mostly "legacy" variants.
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/ll/3084/

Now, if the Global English movement continues, we'll soon see another variant that might get annointed as the semi-official world trade language.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/ar...pagewanted=all

Who knows? Maybe globish will beget Solarian which will evolve into Galactic.

(Or maybe Galactic will develp out of Spanglish/inglanyol. )

I'm thinking of inter solar-system communications. It really depends on how long it takes to travel and communicate. If traveling is in scale of days or weeks and not nearly free, each community will be isolated. Also planets are such large things, most people don't have need or desire to travel a lot. And as such regional dialects adapted to enviroment might pop-up more. It comes down to speed of communication and travel.

Globish isn't a bad idea, if we could get rid of things which make English such a idiotic language. Making it regular and generalizing spelling. Minimize amount of idioms used and so on. Not language of culture, but commerce and engineering.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

...if we could get rid of things which make English such a idiotic language. Making it regular and generalizing spelling. Minimize amount of idioms used and so on. Not language of culture, but commerce and engineering.

It's been suggested:

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c, y and x — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais ch, sh, and th rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Mark Twain

I'm thinking globish has a way to go before evolving into Solarian.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I'm thinking globish has a way to go before evolving into Solarian.

I notice Twain's text is still legible, though. Even an alien could read it!

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

Globish isn't a bad idea, if we could get rid of things which make English such a idiotic language. Making it regular and generalizing spelling. Minimize amount of idioms used and so on. Not language of culture, but commerce and engineering.

Yeah, I don't think that would really work very well. And as languages go, English is pretty easy to learn as a second language.