History Main / StarfishLanguage

** Although the Eldar speak a vocal language that can ostensibly be learned by humans and others, it's described as incredibly complex and difficult; since every single word and phrase can embody multiple complex concepts, which are context-dependent on several levels -- not only on the specific context of a statement, but the usage and positional context as well. The same word can have dramatically different meanings in colloquial speech, formal speech, political speech, trade banter, mytho-historical ballads, psychic spell-casting, etc.; as well as a particular word or phrase's position relative to others in the overall body of discourse. They're native language also has a heavy reliance on allusions to Eldar mythology. They also rely heavily on non-verbal communication, to the point where they can hold conversations using body language alone. Exaggerated with their writing system.

** The Fourth Doctor is shown writing a letter in Old High Gallifreyan in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin "The Deadly Assassin"]]. It seems to be read left-to-right and isn't as inexplicable as the new series' Circular Gallifreyan, but resembles a mixture of arcane mathematical symbols, musical notation and Arabic-like shapes.

** Circular Gallifreyan, which is different arrangements of circles and circular patterns, with some highly complex designs meaning entire sentences.

* ''VideoGame/TerraInvicta'' plays with this in the Hydra language, particularly in regards to their {{mind control}}ling pherocytes. [[spoiler:Because pherocyte production is involuntary and relays the Hydra's emotional state to other Hydra, their verbal language is ''simpler'' than any Earth language. A purely verbal communication will inevitably be simply, dry, and factual, but it suffices for those who wish to communicate with the Hydra instead of simply fill them with lead.]]

* In ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' Kirk and his crew must travel back in time to acquire live humpback whales (supposedly extinct by the 21st century) and transport them to the 23rd century because whales are the only beings capable of communicating with an alien ship that is unwittingly devastating the Earth. Originally, no one knew what the ear-piercing screeches that the probe was emitting were, until Spock had the bright idea of running them through a water environment filter, making them sound like whale song.

*** Deep Space Nine had the Breen. They're speech sounded like digital nonsense and static but was easily understood by their Collective allies. They are a mysterious species who wear refrigeration suits despite living on a planet with a mild temperature.

** [[spoiler: Becsprite]] talks [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/3007 in this seizure-inducing fashion.]]

* Aliens in ''Literature/AxiomsEnd'' have three kinds of language: a "vocal" one made of clicking sounds spoken through the vents in the sides of their neck, a sort of telepathy that they usually prefer, and the incredibly intimate High Language, a more evolved form of telepathy that Ampersand (the main alien in the book) can’t even begin to explain to Cora. When protagonist Cora similarly fails to explain what a piece of music she plays expresses, Ampersand takes that as the closest point of comparison.

** Although the Eldar speak a vocal language that can ostensibly be learned by humans and others, it's described as incredibly complex and difficult; since every single word and phrase can embody multiple complex concepts, which are context-dependent on several levels -- not only on the specific context of a statement, but the usage and positional context as well. The same word can have dramatically different meanings in colloquial speech, formal speech, political speech, trade banter, mytho-historical ballads, psychic spell-casting, etc.; as well as a particular word or phrase's position relative to others in the overall body of discourse. They're native language also has a heavy reliance on allusions to Eldar mythology. They also rely heavily on non-verbal communication, to the point where they can hold conversations using body language alone. Turned UpToEleven with their writing system.

* One of the games made by Platine Dispositif (the creator of the ''VideoGame/GundemoniumSeries'' and ''VideoGame/BunnyMustDie'') took this trope UpToEleven. The game in question is a ShootEmUp titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJhHhoCEK-8 _____]] (yes, that's the game's ''actual title''), where everything, including the menus, dialogue and even its true name is written in an indecipherable alien language. Even the game's high score is presented with alien symbols instead of numbers.

** The Rachni communicate telepathically and refer to it as "singing", and colors also appear to be part of their language. The only way they can communicate with other species is by [[spoiler:possessing recently dead, about-to-die.

* Programming languages such as C++, Java, etc. etc. etc. are a layer of abstraction intended to allow specially-trained humans to "communicate" with non-sentient machines that "think" in binary and are mind-numbingly literal.
** This cannot be understated. Computers are bogglingly dumb. They just work very, very quickly. One of the biggest problems new programmers have is wrapping their minds around just how simple a computer really is.
%% * Greshnik is a rather weird case. All the nouns are developed from Turkish, but all the verbs are developed from Georgian. The adjectives come from Latin of all things, and the misc words are all pulled from English. The alignment is ergative and the grammar combines the most painfully dickish features of the various languages. The word order is verb-subject-object, and it is very strict about this. It features a god-awful complicated noun case system derived from Finnish, the hellishly complicated verb system of Laz, grammatical bits that the author might as well have made up, and a tendency towards either consonant or vowel cluster fucks. All vowels must been pronounced individually, unless a diphong is given, and diphong symbols look totally different from their constituent letters. Oh, and a diphong can count as either a consonant or a vowel depending on context, and a diphong is treated only as a single vowel or consonant. Nouns have to be given different categories and classifications, which makes words often very long, leading to frequent dropping of additions designed to give meaning. The same can be done with verbs depending upon the level of precision and formality the speaker is trying to convey. So depending on how formal and precise the user is being, it can look like anything from Hungarian to Tagalog. The writing system is also designed to fuck with just about everybody who tries to learn it. It combines symbols from many different alphabets, but seldom keeps them faithful to their original sounds. Here are a few examples. "Do you love me?" is "UJVROSYKAӠI ᏄYO ЖჱVO" (Ujvrsykazi uyo mevo)? Literally: You love you for me? "I kill you" is AKVЛOSIKA Պ UYO (Akvlosika I uyo). Also for example: water love, Zumizusaiuus (ӠᏄЖIӠUSAტUUS) is not the same as love water, zusaiumiyuus (ӠᏄSAტUЖIӠUUS). The former means a love of water. The latter means that the water is an agent that causes love.

* Many esoteric programming languages tend to this, with the most extreme example likely being [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_(programming_language) Piet]], whose programs contain ''no letters or numbers at all'' -- it is written with ''colours''.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) Whitespace]] doesn't even use those!

** [[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002084 The Kernelsprites]] are ridiculously [[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002087 incomprehensible]]. Note that those images are supposed to be ''sounds''.
** [[spoiler: Becsprite]] talks [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004907 in this seizure-inducing fashion.]]

** At one point, Karkat suggests (not entirely seriously) that stabbing people might be Jack Noir's way of greeting them. [[BrickJoke Later]], another iteration of Jack Noir stabs Jane with the UnsoundEffect "*greet*".

* One of the games made by Platine Dispositif (the creator of the ''VideoGame/GundemoniumSeries'' and ''VideoGame/BunnyMustDie'') took this trope to an absurd degree. The game in question is a ShootEmUp titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJhHhoCEK-8 _____]] (yes, that's the game's ''actual title''), where everything, including its true name, is written in an indecipherable alien language. Even the game's high score is presented with alien symbols instead of numbers.

** The ComicBook/UltimateVision was built to warn alien cultures of Gah Lak Tus. In a case of CrazyPrepared, she (yeah, [[ShesAManInJapan Vision's a "she" in this continuity]]) can communicate with chemical enzymes, gravitational flux, microwaves, spacetime tears, and so on. All of which comes in handy when she fights one of Gah Lak Tus' components:

* The alien teammates you can unlock [[GuideDangIt in certain rare circumstances]] in ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach'' communicate incomprehensibly: Kazaaakpleth, for example, makes what are presumably chittering noises that, apart from names, are rendered in consonant-heavy gibberish, while Mafan communicates entirely in dots, dashes and slashes which could mean almost anything.

** Averted with the Orks. Depending on the work in question, they may be speaking [[AliensSpeakingEnglish the Imperial analogue of English]] with an exaggerated cockney accent, or they may use a grunting, growling language that relies on physical violence for emphasis. Their written language is also a simple pictographic system.

* The language developed in [[Creator/JanuszZajdel Janusz Zajdel's story "Paradyzja"]] is a heavily bastardized language spoken on a [[spoiler: supposed]] space station. Due to the place being wired with an all-seeing, all-hearing AI which filters "disloyal" words, residents cobble together something known as "koalang" (associative-allusive language). The words have no inherent meaning, and everything is based on loose associations: for example, the sentence "I dreamt about blue angels last night carelessly" means "Police tried to search my place last night, but they were careless and woke me up". As one of the characters says, "everyone becomes an abstract poet by neccesity

* In Creator/JohnScalzi's ''The Android's Dream'', the race of aliens who have [[SarcasmMode benignly]] colonized Earth ''can'' speak English but their primary form of communication is through pheremonal mixtures far too subtle for humans to pick up. [[PlayedWithTrope In an interesting take on this,]] at the start of the novel, a politician who has been gravely insulted by the primary alien diplomat figures out how to speak this language himself so he can insult the alien in an important meeting without being detected. [[RuleOfFunny He does this with a device that alters the chemical composition of his farts.]] It helps that the alien diplomat in question is known for frequently attacking humans, whose scents he misinterprets as insults, refusing to believe that humans ''can't'' modulate their smells (all human diplomats are instructed to shower and scrub themselves before meeting these aliens and to avoid using deodorant).

* ''Film/TheCroodsANewAge'' has Guy revealing he speaks the language of the Punch Monkeys, only he prefers not to because "it's an ugly one". And given it consists of hitting and getting hit, he has a reason for it.