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"
There's a book called my buddy have be a starship that actually deals with this sort of. Translator keeps calling earth "dirt" to an alien that has only one word for dirt. Many jokes about that sort of thing throughout.
Is this the one with Captain Jester and the aliens keep calling him "Fool"?
No I don't think so
☹️
Harry Harrison , The Stainless Steel Rat series, where Esperanto is a language of culture and every now and then there is talk of the legendary lost homeworld of humanity called Dirt? And the main character is James "Slippery Jim" Bolivar DiGriz?