Transcription
A series of Tweets by @Foone, each replying to the last:
Here's the question I always have with universal translators in sci-fi: how do they know when to stop translation? Like say an alien asks about deserts on earth, and the human lists "the sahara desert, gobi desert and kalahari desert" Alien: You just said "desert" six times.
("Sahara" is Arabic for "desert". "Gobi" is Mongolian for "desert", and "Kalahari" is Tswana for "desert")
Man, the aliens are going to think we're so bad at naming. Cause really, aren't we?
Brit: Behold, the beautiful River Avon!
Alien: Ahh, the River River. You humans have such a knack for naming things.
"Here we are in Chad, looking upon the mighty Lake Chad!"
"Ahh yes, the land of Lake, bordering the Lake Lake. Another fine human name. "
"And here's Nyanza Lac, in Burundi. As you can tell by the fact that it's named Lake Lake in Bantu & French, it's a la... actually this one's a city. A city named Lake Lake"
What do you call this planet? Earth And what do you call the ground that you dig up? Earth but it is only capital because it is at the beginning of the sentence otherwise it is earth. Do you pronounce Earth and earth differently? No Ok what do you call the big rocks that orbit planets? Moons And let me guess you call your moon, Moon? Some people prefer Lunar Isn't that just moon in a different language? Yes
Well, nobody who's ever lived on the moon calls it Luna, either. That's just something they say on Earth.