Basic Trope: A sort of "alien-ish" language not understandable to humans.
- Straight:
- The alien race of Staria speaks Starian, a language only understandable to the race itself.
- The language can be translated into human language with a translator capable of translating Starfish Language.
- Exaggerated: Starian is so bizarre that even a Translator Microbe cannot translate it.
- Downplayed:
- Starian is a variation of human language, but can be understood by facial expressions.
- Some of them can speak English, but they use Starian for translation of human language to other Starians.
- Justified:
- The race of Staria is like a country, with their own language like a country.
- Starian originated from a ancient language of Staria.
- To speak staria anatomical structures are needed that humans don't have
- Starian speech proper lies in the ultrasonic range.
- Inverted: The grammar and structure of Starian is remarkably simple. Starians struggle to learn Earth's complex languages, while humans, once they figure out how to make the unusual sounds, find it easy to learn.
- Subverted: The race of Staria goes to Bob. They are expected to speak Starian, but they speak English.
- Double Subverted: But due to most of them not understanding, some of them turn to speaking their native language.
- Parodied:
- The Starians speak in a bizarre language that nobody can understand, only other animals can understand them.
- Conlang
- The "alien language" is just very obvious English with a few quirks thrown in. The characters still fail to understand it.
Alice: Commander, are we making peace with the aliens?
Alien: We blah plan blah to blah wipe blah out blah humanity.
Commander Bob: I can't make out anything from their language, but they seem to be speaking to us in a positive tone. I'd say so. - Zig Zagged:
- The race of Staria goes to Bob. They are expected to speak Starian, but they speak English. But due to most of them not understanding, some of them turn to speaking their native language. Then they speak English again to Bob, then Starian to the other aliens.
- The language has a structure similar to that of the Indo-European language, but it has no verbs, it Follow Verner's law
but an adjective can mean one thing or another depending on where it is in the Prayer.
- Averted: Aliens Speaking English
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "this language is very different from any language on earth"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Because humans cannot understand it, misunderstandings occur.
Back to Starfish Language
