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== Literature ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]] literary example: The actual Tower Of Babel in ''[[
** The fate of the N.I.C.E. in C. S. Lewis' ''[[That Hideous Strength]]'' is a shout out to the Biblical Tower of Babel.
** The Tower of Babel story is [[Older Than They Think]] -- an older Sumerian version of the story exists, [http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/36_babel.html as told here]. Technically, then, the version in the Bible is still an example of this trope.
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* In ''[[Snow Crash]]'', the [[Big Bad]] is attempting to spread an informational [[The Virus|virus]] that causes infected people to revert to the "language of Babel", supposedly a primitive language wired into the human brainstem. He uses this language to essentially take control of their minds. The language is incomprehensible to anyone who is uninfected and hasn't studied it extensively.
* Octavia E. Butler's short story ''Speech Sounds'' explores the aftermath of a pandemic plague that has left the vast majority of humans unable to speak, read, comprehend language, or some combination thereof.
* Referenced in ''[[The
== Live Action TV ==
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** In ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S18 E1 The Leisure Hive|The Leisure Hive]]'', a Foamasi detective is presented as a villain until we find that he just lacks a speech synthesizer.
** ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17 E3 The Creature From the Pit|The Creature from the Pit]]'': Same thing. (Same scriptwriter, too.)
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', "Babel": The station's occupants are exposed to a disease that disrupts their speech centers, causing the victims to develop aphasia.
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', "Think Tank": Really the converse of this trope, Voyager is able to escape the think-tank's plan by disrupting the ability of its members to communicate with each other.
** In another episode, Neelix's universal translator suddenly fails while he is on a trading away mission, rendering him unable to communicate with his trading partners. An alien named Arturis, [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman|who happens to be from a species which is exceptionally good in learning languages]], comes to Neelix' rescue by playing his interpreter. Out of gratitude, Neelix invites him to the ''Voyager''. {{spoiler|It later turns out that Arturis very probably has [[Xanatos Gambit|orchestrated]] this whole incident, because he needed to gain the crew's trust for his plans of revenge. ([[It Makes Sense in Context|He considers Cpt. Janeway to be responsible for the Borg assimilating his species.]])}}
* ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'', "Recognition": Sky [[Freaky Friday|switches bodies]] with an alien who is physically unable to speak English (and the alien deliberately breaks the translator for good measure).
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** Straighter is the episode where Catalina loses her voice after Sonic Screaming too much, and thus can't alert the crew when the ship is invaded.
* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Hush" took this to the extreme, when ''the entire town'' had their voices taken away by the [[Monster of the Week|Monsters of the Week]].
* The [[Monster of the Week|patient-of-the-week]] in one episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is dysphasic. So in a twist on the usual plot, the patient has a diagnosis-cracking secret, and really wants to reveal it, but he can't.
* In a small arc in season 6, Sun-Hwa Kwon of ''[[Lost]]'' manages to lose her ability to speak English. Only she can still write in English, so there's no barrier to communication, and she's fine three episodes later. This is, unsurprisingly, generally considered one of the more pointless story arcs in the series' history.
* This happened to the cast in the ''[[So Weird]]'' episode "Babble", due to their exposure to a stone from the tower.
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== Webcomics ==
* For a number of strips of ''[[The Order of the Stick
== Web Original ==
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* In one episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', a pack of squirrels raise a ruckus after the Mayor builds a statue over the spot where they'd been burying their acorns. Bubbles, who can talk to animals, is unable to sort things out because she had been rendered mute after a bee she nearly swallowed stung her in the throat.
* In one episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', Shriek messes with soundwaves, preventing anyone in Gotham City from being able to communicate intelligibly.
* In ''[[
{{quote| '''Leela''': [with urgency] "Brain! Big brain make dumb."<br />
'''Fry''': [patiently] "No, Leela, brains make you smart."<br />
'''Leela''': "Nooo!" }}
* In one episode of ''[[My Life
== Real Life ==
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