Language Log

The language of first contact

... is, apparently, Glaxitian, according to this Bizarro cartoon:

[People are writing in to say that this cartoon might have been influenced by an episode of the television show The Simpsons.  In the second season, the "Treehouse of Horror" episode (for Halloween 1990) has a segment in which the family is abducted by space aliens, Kang and Kodos.  Memorable exchange: Marge: "You speak English?"  Kang: "I am actually speaking Rigellian. By an astonishing coincidence, both of our languages are exactly the same."

Of course, as Steve McKinney points out, the cartoon might be an independent parody of the familiar trope in television science fiction that aliens speak English, or whatever the language of the show's audience is.]

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Posted by Arnold Zwicky at March 8, 2007 05:18 PM