How realistic is Star Trek’s Tamarian language? - Darmok and Jalad (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 year ago by Zagorath@aussie.zone to c/startrek@startrek.website

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I thought this video was absolutely fascinating throughout, even the ad.

The main thrust of it is about how natural Earth languages make use of idiom and metaphor frequently, and how Tamarian is subtly different from this. But we do also make use of a similar direct literary allusion, to different degrees in different languages. Mandarin has a number of examples, but we can also point to "crossing the Rubicon" as an example in English.

More recently, the use of memes has taken on a very Tamarian-like role.

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[-] JungleJim@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

The thing that confuses me about this wonderful concept is how did the Tamarians ever get to the point of building wooden ships if they only spoke in meme and metaphor? How could they have created a culture that speaks only in references if their references couldn't happen without culture existing to make note of the referenced events?

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 11 points 1 year ago

I saw an amazing post on the alien site a while ago—I think it was in Daystrom, but I’m not sure—that suggested the Tamarians may have 2 or 3 different "modes" of speaking. This would explain both how their language’s function words exist and how children might acquire language.

[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I think this probably happened the other way round. They had a separate more traditional language until they struck out and discovered other civilizations that spoke other languages. An allegorical language that can be modified with context under observation would actually be a fairly good way to relate and then exchange languages using tamarian as sort of a Rosetta stone.

[-] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 year ago

I assume that they didn't always speak that way, but as their language evolved it became gradually more dense with allusions, until they took over entirely.

[-] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

Kermit, his head nodding in agreement

[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Bale, cut in counterpoint

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago

Ooh, I found the post in question:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230720101945/https://old.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/zldod9/explaining_tng_darmok_what_if_tamarians_have_more/

[-] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maybe they have a less flowery and a purely functional language for those situations.

this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023

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