The Year That Was: World Languages rounds Year 3

Unfair to monogenetics, perhaps, but well worth the anecdote.

New improved Star Trek: now with linguistics!

A past column on Star Trek excoriated that pop culture dynasty for its cavalier attitude toward linguistics. Now we have Enterprise, the latest instalment, and prospects have definitely changed for the better. Enterprise features the first crew to include a linguist. Nor is she a lowly redshirt; in fact, she's bridge crew. The series also boasts a Southern character who talks accordingly, and a lot of Vulcan flying around. The Vulcan officer's equipment even reads out in her language, the best performance by a non-English language in an American sci-fi production since the movie 2010 brazenly claimed that Soviet cosmonauts use Russian-language computers. Vulcan's prestige in this speculative world is further implied by the Vulcanisms that pepper English. Thus we learn that Class-M (capable of supporting humanoid life), a term that dates to Spock's series, refers to the Vulcan word menshara.

The struggle for realistic Trek linguistics isn't over, of course. Enterprise's linguist listens to fifteen seconds of a language she's never heard and then analyses its grammar, while the Vulcan character's atrocious American accent makes even non-Vulcan-speaking viewers wince.

But it's a start. And I'm taking full credit. Just as Daddy Bush claimed his stock "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech crumbled the Berlin Wall, so I insist that my Suite 101 column intimidated Hollywood into making these changes.

Sea change

But by far the most dramatic event this year has been the rise of aggressive, war-inspired parochialism, felt in the larger culture and right here at World Languages. It's an established historical principle that state-sponsored xenophobia is murder on enlightened people and pursuits. The ideological wars of the 20th century nearly killed Esperanto, while sabre-rattling routinely drowns out Sir William Jones' voice. Similarly, interest in languages and cultures has waned noticeably since 11 September, as decreased World Languages activity attests. Since the attacks, hits have plunged to 50% of the norm, and discussion posts have dropped off completely.

Here's hoping the world will figure out, at long last, that the way off this treadmill is exactly the opposite of enforced closed-mindedness. Any road, I'm confident that World Language will survive this setback to emerge unscathed on the other side.

Swing by in a year and see if I'm right.

This article is available from Suite 101 World Languages: www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/world_languages

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