Stargate (SG-1) -- theory

[butterfly]

re: all the English spoken on various planets in Stargate

It's simple -- the Goa'uld invented the English language (which, honestly, would explain so much about how fucking annoying it can be). Any contrary evidence in the series?

Comments

[fanaddict.livejournal.com]

I thought some producer fanwanked it a bit and said that going through the gate somehow allowed the team to understand and speak the other language while on planet, or something dumb like that. It was definitely brought up to TPTB and then hemmed and hawed about it because they didn't have a good reason other than that subtitles don't make good TV (the general opinion of TV makers, not me as a viewer, btw).

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

You can do it for a movie, but it's more problematical for a series. I get that. It's annoying, though.

Still, there are times when that just isn't true, yes?

[destina.livejournal.com]

It's simple -- the Goa'uld invented the English language (which, honestly, would explain so much about how fucking annoying it can be).

I don't think it's quite that simple. Take, for instance, Demons -- the 'English' spoken by their ancestors at the time they were taken from Earth would not sound like it does today. And once they were removed from Earth, their language would continue to evolve in directions different from those on Earth, where language is a living thing that is influenced by other languages. For this reason alone, it's not possible to explain away the uniformity of speech, contractions, greetings, etc. among the many transplanted peoples; the language on each world would have evolved over time. Our modern-day slang and greetings wouldn't be theirs. English, I guess, is the producers' way of saying -- hey, look, Earth-based cultures! Earth's descendants = English. Aliens = their own languages (Ancient, Asgard, Goa'uld, Unas, etc).

It's just one of those things -- multiple languages and constant translation don't make for coherent TV. Gotta just go with the flow. *g*

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Demons is an episode, yes? Haven't seen it yet.

Yeah, it's more complicated than that, but... it just feels wrong to me to disregard it as an issue. It makes sense, for instance, that the Asgard know English, because of the whole 'spying on humanity' thing. The Nox are/were friends with the Asgard, so I can buy that, too. The problem lies in the other cultures that haven't had recent contact. Saying that the Goa'uld bring English with them is an personal fanwank that makes me feel better about the whole thing (which is what all fanwanks are for, naturally, to make a person feel better about what they perceive as a hole in canon).

Magically speaking contemporary English is easier for me to buy than magically speaking English at all. And they do run across cultures that don't speak the most contemporary English.