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

submitted 1 year ago by Zagorath to c/[email protected]

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can’t imagine “Temba, his arms wide”-ing a way to warp capabilities.

There's a fan theory that they use a distinct music-based writing system for math and technology.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That sounds interesting. Do you have a link to that discussion? I don't know anything about music theory, but connecting it to the Tamarian language could be a fascinating read.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

OK, I found the post from daytrom I remembered, which said the idea came from a beta canon story. So I checked the Memory-Beta page for the Tamarians and it says the idea comes from a short story called Friends with the Sparrows by Christopher Bennett. I haven't been able to find a copy of it online, though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for finding these. I'll check them out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't remember where, probably a post on /r/daystrominstitute

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'll take a look-see. Thanks for the heads up.