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Translating Alien Texts

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

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

Replies:   ian_macf  madnige  joyR  madnige
ian_macf ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Try 'Epigraphy' by Zaliterr

Ian

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@ian_macf

Try 'Epigraphy' by Zaliterr

Thank you. It's one I've read before but it's well worth rereading.

AJ

LonelyDad ๐Ÿšซ

'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.

madnige ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

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.

Replies:   awnlee jawking  bk69
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@madnige

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

bk69 ๐Ÿšซ

@madnige

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...)

joyR ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

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....

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@joyR

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

Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@joyR

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

karactr ๐Ÿšซ

I think that might depend on how alien we are talking.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@karactr

I think that might depend on how alien we are talking.

Pretty extreme. A dialect of British English for a start :)

AJ

Replies:   karactr
karactr ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Pretty extreme. A dialect of British English for a start :)

Could be worse. Could be Cajun.

Replies:   Ernest Bywater
Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@karactr

Could be worse. Could be Cajun.

Du thou know wa a Yorkshaman soonds lik?

Replies:   Radagast  karactr
Radagast ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

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.

karactr ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

Du thou know wa a Yorkshaman soonds lik?

Do YOU know what an Acadian sounds like?

Replies:   Ernest Bywater
Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@karactr

Do YOU know what an Acadian sounds like?

I dunna, haav an ideer aboot thart. I doont theenk I've met one.

Replies:   anim8ed
anim8ed ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

Try watching this video... Justin E. Wilson is who I think of when you say Acadian or Cajun.

https://youtu.be/_eZyy54pM_k

Replies:   bk69
bk69 ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

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.

Replies:   anim8ed
anim8ed ๐Ÿšซ

@bk69

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.

Replies:   bk69  Ernest Bywater
bk69 ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

Are Canadian Acadians easier to understand than Newfies?

Their accent, no. Their behavior, yes.

Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

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.

Replies:   anim8ed  bk69
anim8ed ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

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.

Replies:   anim8ed
anim8ed ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

I need a new mouse... damn thing keeps double clicking which causes double posting.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

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.

Replies:   anim8ed
anim8ed ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

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.

Replies:   irvmull  Dominions Son  bk69
irvmull ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

It doesn't pop back as well as it used to.

Happens to all of us eventually.

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

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.

bk69 ๐Ÿšซ

@anim8ed

A qtip and some isopropyl could improve that. (Unless the weight of the button exceeds the strength of the spring.)

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@bk69

Unless the weight of the button exceeds the strength of the spring.

Or the spring broke.

bk69 ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

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.)

Replies:   PotomacBob
PotomacBob ๐Ÿšซ

@bk69

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.?

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@PotomacBob

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.

Replies:   PotomacBob
PotomacBob ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Where do you thing the phrase "welshing on a bet" comes from?

Welch, West Virginia?

dsw_tenka ๐Ÿšซ

Not related to the OP...

... you peeps are funny.

madnige ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

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

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