Over on sister site scifistories.com, I recently read 'Omnilingual' by H. Beam Piper. Can anyone recommend stories with a similar theme, translating alien texts? (I've already read Gordon Johnson's Personalia stories, in which it plays a minor part.)
TIA, AJ
Try 'Epigraphy' by Zaliterr
Thank you. It's one I've read before but it's well worth rereading.
AJ
'Perchance to Dream' by FantasyLover
https://storiesonline.net/s/70440/perchance-to-dream
Its not translating alien writing, but ancient Earth writing, but it is an interesting read.
Here, you could try Gina Marie Wylie's The Mission (info). In dead tree, C.J.Cherryh's Foreigner series follows a diplomat/translator's rise from minor official to major lord.
Here, you could try Gina Marie Wylie's The Mission
Thank you. Quite a decent story, although I think it would have benefited from a good editor - the introduction of a crucial character in chapter 4 (of 5) is symptomatic of a less than ideal structure.
AJ
That dead tree one... ISTR a cryptographer MC who broke a enemy code which was actually a new language, but the language basically programmed anyone who learned it, in a brainwashing kind of way. Was that from the series? (I don't recall the author now...)
Can anyone recommend stories with a similar theme, translating alien texts?
Good to know you finally understand what it's like to be your story editor... :)
Sorry, just couldn't resist....
Good to know you finally understand what it's like to be your story editor...
Agreed, there's only one who knows alien well enough to be able to edit my stories ;)
AJ
Good to know you finally understand what it's like to be your story editor... :)
I would have thought translating alien texts was the easier task of the two!
hehehehehe
I think that might depend on how alien we are talking.
Pretty extreme. A dialect of British English for a start :)
AJ
Pretty extreme. A dialect of British English for a start :)
Could be worse. Could be Cajun.
Years ago I had a conversation with three (not four) Yorkshiremen. They reminisced about stealing coal to boil water in winter, using newspaper in the privy and sleeping four to a bed, bundling up against the cold.
They were all successful businessmen, minor millionaires with their own companies. Apparently Monty Python was a documentary.
Do YOU know what an Acadian sounds like?
I dunna, haav an ideer aboot thart. I doont theenk I've met one.
Try watching this video... Justin E. Wilson is who I think of when you say Acadian or Cajun.
https://youtu.be/_eZyy54pM_k
Acadian is when they're the part of the family that stayed in canada. Cajun is when they learned to cook. I mean, when they went to Louisiana.
Are Canadian Acadians easier to understand than Newfies?
And for Ernest. Cajun folk came to Louisiana from France via Acadia and speak a variation of French that is uniquely theirs.
For a real treat try looking up Zydeco music.
Are Canadian Acadians easier to understand than Newfies?
Their accent, no. Their behavior, yes.
And for Ernest. Cajun folk came to Louisiana from France via Acadia and speak a variation of French that is uniquely theirs.
I know, and I recently saw a PBS video about how the Acadian culture is trying to make a comeback after decades of efforts to wipe it out.
I don't know why people are picking on me about Acadian / Cajun accents, as the only contact I had with it in this thread was when someone made a comment about Cajun accents being worse than British ones and I suggested they look at Yorkshire accents. I find most Acadian / Cajun / French accents easier to follow than some British accents like Yorkshire or the stronger Scottish accents.
I have to agree though it did take me a while to get a handle on Justin. I was at a bookstore (I am in California) and the cashier was from the UK. I swear his accent was so thick that I did not recognize anything as being English. Not one word. Unfortunately, being a Californian I am not familiar with all the regional accents and dialects to tell you where he was from.
I need a new mouse... damn thing keeps double clicking which causes double posting.
In your system settings, or in the properties for the mouse driver, you should be able to adjust the click speed which should help with that.
I will try though I believe It is just plain wore out as it is a new issue on an old mouse key. It doesn't pop back as well as it used to.
I believe It is just plain wore out as it is a new issue on an old mouse key. It doesn't pop back as well as it used to.
That can be a problem, but adjusting the click speed could help compensate until you can get a new mouse.
A qtip and some isopropyl could improve that. (Unless the weight of the button exceeds the strength of the spring.)
I find most Acadian / Cajun / French accents easier to follow than some British accents like Yorkshire or the stronger Scottish accents.
The real challenge comes when regional slang is included. You can understand what sounds someone is trying to make, but if it doesn't form a word you are familiar with you'll try to interpret the sounds as something else that you may recognize.
On the subject of accents tho...
Once, I got to know a bartender who was from Wales. His accent was pure stereotypical Aussie. I mentioned this to him, and he reported that any number of females had asked him if he was from Oz. Then he admitted he'd told them the truth. Poor bugger didn't realize - nobody girl is going to pick a Welsh guy preferentially over anyone else, but Aussies get a significant edge in the dating biz. (He later admitted his results improved dramatically when he started lying to them at my advice.)
Poor bugger didn't realize - nobody girl is going to pick a Welsh guy preferentially over anyone else,
Why is that true? Because they have coal mines in Wales like they do in West Virginia in U.S.?
Why is that true?
There's more to it than coal mines. Where do you thing the phrase "welshing on a bet" comes from?
https://www.etymologynerd.com/blog/welshing-on-a-bet
When someone refuses to pay a bet, we say that they have welched on it. This expression originated in the 1860s in English horse racing slang and very likely is an insult geared towards Welsh people, which resulted from the xenophobic mistrust of the people-group by the English.
Gina Marie Wylie's The Mission and Mission:Fuel stop should fit the bill, but they're not here, but over on beyondthefarhorizon. One of her Kinsella universe (either The Oddessy or The Illiad, whichever one came later, now on Amazon) also had translation of an alien AI comms as a fairly-minor plot point