Omniglot: Difference between revisions

== Anime/Manga ==

* Kirika Yumura of ''[[Noir]]'' is supposed to be fluent in multiple languages, presumably so that she could make herself understood in any region she is trying to track down and kill someone in. However, since the anime auto-translates for the viewer, this is an [[Informed Ability]], and the exact languages she knows are never explicitly stated.

 

 

** And in the same universe, David Cain (the father of former Batgirl Cassandra Cain) can say "That's nice. Now get me a Scotch or I'll rip your lungs out." in every Earth-native language in existence.

* In the Star Wars extension comics, according to Han Solo, the warlord Zsinj can swear fluently in nearly 60 languages.

* Mark Waid's run on ''[[Daredevil]]'' features Austin Cao, a client of Matt Murdock's. Austin worked in Language Services at Midas Investments; he speaks 17 languages fluently and another 10 passably.

* [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]], in addition to English, speaks fluent French, German, Russian, Chinese... That's ''not'' counting his armor's translation software.

 

== Fan Works ==

** Quite possibly Aro, and hence {{spoiler|Addy, Elspeth, Siobhan, and everyone in range during Helper.}}

 

 

* C-3PO of ''[[Star Wars]]'' is a protocol droid fluent in over 6,000,000 forms of communication, and thus acts as an interpreter. This was at first treated as a throwaway character trait just to get Luke's uncle Owen to buy him and thus become a part of Luke's life (not to mention relay what [[The Unintelligible|R2-D2]] says to others), but Threepio's linguistic abilities eventually become important in ''Episode VI: [[Return of the Jedi]]'', when the Ewoks see him as a god and he gets their support in defeating the Galactic Empire. He also occasionally proves useful in being able to identify some codes. Despite his abilities, C-3PO is absolutely horrible interpreter incapable of understanding any allusion or context of the conversation.

** The protocol droid turned bounty hunter (really!), 4LOM (seen briefly alongside the other bounty hunters in ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'') is a newer model, fluent in over ''7'',000,000 forms of communication.

** Played straight with Indy himself who speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Chinese, Hindi, Swedish and Russian, and can apparently understand many more.

{{quote| '''Indy:''' It's too bad the Hovitos don't know you like I do, Belloq.<br />

'''Belloq:''' Yes, too bad. You could warn them . . . if only you spoke Hovitos. [Turns around and starts giving orders to the Hovitos] }}

* Hans Landa of ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' is a multilingual Nazi capable of speaking in German, French, English and Italian, and each of these skills becomes a plot point. Christoph Waltz actually does speak German, French and English, but his Italian is [[Faux Fluency]]. Tarantino nearly dropped the project after having difficulty casting the role.

* Similarly, in ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]'', a 20th-Century kid from L.A. (who happens to be a fan of classic chop-socky movies) lands... literally... in Mythic China. When he first awakens, he can't understand anyone, which proves disconcerting when a group of unpleasant soldiers start yelling orders at him. Jackie Chan's character arrives, defeats the soldiers with Drunken Boxing and tries to talk to our hero.

{{quote| 20th Century kid: (speaking loudly and slowly) I. Can't. Understand. You.<br />

Jackie Chan: (speaking in perfectly clear, slightly accented English) That's because you're not LISTENING! (after which point every character starts speaking English) }}

{{quote| '''Face''' (after witnessing the very white and very Southern Murdock supposed to be disguised as a Rabbi speak flawless Swahili to an airport security guard): You speak Swahili?<br />

'''Murdock''': You don't? }}

* In the film ''Carlos'' based on the life of Carlos the Jackal, the titular terrorist speaks flawless Spanish, French, German, English, and Arabic - and that's just what we see. The actor who plays him is also fluent in all of these languages except Arabic.

* According to the doctor narrating in the beginning of ''[[Twins]]'', Arnold Schwarzenegger's character (as a experimental result of creating a super baby by combining sperm from six athlete and scholarly fathers) can speak twelve languages along with excelling in all school subjects, physical and spiritual training.

 

 

* Every single male protagonist of a book written by [[Dan Brown]]. Most notably the guy in ''[[Digital Fortress]]'' (his being able to speak Spanish was the reason he was sent to Spain {{spoiler|that and [[Murder the Hypotenuse|so his fiance's boss could get him killed]]}}).

** This part being, as is usual in the author, [[Dan Browned]]. The character is supposed to speak Spanish so well that he can fake a Burgos accent. But that's like saying someone can speak English so well as to fake a perfect "neutral accent" such as [[Useful Notes/British Accents|the RP]] or [[American Accents|Midwestern]].<ref>Being in the heart of old Castile, Burgos has the same standard Castilian accent spoken over most of central Spain and the one in which virtually every film and TV in Spain is produced, so far that Spaniards sometimes joke that "The Burgos accent is the not-accent".</ref>

* Some of [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' characters have good relations with a species of sentient telepathic deer-things, which will obligingly use their telepathy to pick up languages and put them into people's heads. This gives native-level proficiency in the language.

* Bean from ''[[Ender's Game]]'' is noted to pick up new languages with incredible ease: after spending just a few months in Thailand, he's nearly fluent in Thai. This is actually somewhat [[Justified]]: {{spoiler|since his brain is constantly growing new neurons, he is still capable of the intuitive leaps that young children perform in learning their parents' language.}} By the end of the first book he's taught himself at least five languages and by the end of the fourth speaks at least a dozen

* ''[[Flashman]]'', in Fraser's works, seems to pick up foreign languages far more easily than can be explained for reasons beyond the requirements of plot. Notable exceptions include Danish and Apache, which he finds impossible to learn even when immersed in the culture.

** Imriel's a much more realistic example. While Phedre's gift for languages is remarkable to the point that it's lampshaded a few times, Imriel learns to make himself understood in a variety of languages because he spent months in an environment that spoke many different languages interchangeably. After he returns to Terre D'Ange, he rarely uses any language besides D'Angeline, and as a result loses most of what he learned as a child.

* Most [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]] in his world learn languages literally before hatching, but ''[[Temeraire]]'' {{spoiler|and presumably other Celestials}} continue to absorb languages like a sponge when they reach full growth.

* [[Doc Savage]] knows an astonishing number of languages and those he doesn't know he picks up freakishly fast.

* Although in the movies [[Tarzan]] can barely speak English, in the books he speaks a variety of languages, including at least one non-human one (Ape).

* The latest depiction of [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Thrawn]], in ''Outbound Flight'', has him learning Basic very, ''very'' quickly by taking lessons from a human who shares a trade language with him. The human is slightly alarmed by his progress. He tries to teach the human the Chiss language at the same time, but this works less well due to its complexity. "[[My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels|You are a fishing boat]]?"

** The fishing boat example isn't due to the complexity of the language, but the fact that most speakers of Basic don't know how to make that soft "p" sound. Presumably Basic, like English, usually has a puff of air accompany the "p" sound. This isn't part of the language but simply how it's spoken. The Chiss language, however, uses both as different phonemes. Car'das was so used to Basic that, try as he might, he couldn't make that soft "p" when the language called for it. Spanish speakers, from what I've been told, do the opposite; they don't make the puff of air that English-speakers do.

* Stephen Maturin of the ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' series can speak English, French, Spanish, Catalan and Latin fluently. He can speak Ancient Greek and Portuguese well, though of the latter he says in one of the later books that he has trouble with pronunciation. Over the course of the books he learns Urdu, Arabic and Malay, as well as picking up some Polynesian, Turkish and Berber. His cradle tongue was Irish, but by 15 he had forgotten it; by the second book he can subconsciously understand the Irish-speaking mutineers, and by the fourth he is writing political propaganda. In the rest of the books, he is fluent again.

* The protagonist of Brazilian novel ''O Homem Que Matou Getulio Vargas'' (released in English as ''Twelve Fingers'') learns many languages before becoming a teenager due to being raised on a traveling circus.

* Kelhus of ''[[Second Apocalypse]]'' has a perfect memory, above-genius level intellect, and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. It's no surprise that he learns new languages in about a week, just from talking with people who speak it. He even became fluent in the ancient language of magic in two weeks--which took his genius teacher six months to learn the ''grammar''.

* Tirla of [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''Pegasus'' series has a [[Psychic Powers|Talent]] for communication that she used to survive in the slums as a messenger. At one point, it's mention that she can speak 93 languages like a native.

* [[The Shadow]] speaks and reads whatever language is necessary for that adventure, ''fluently'', including Chinese, Italian, Turkish, and Russian.

* The [[Witch Species|Sartan and Patryns]] from [[The Death Gate Cycle]] have the ability to learn languages instantly with their magic; this leads to a scene in the fourth book where Patryn [[Anti-Hero]] Haplo is dipped in magic nullifying water and loses all languages apart from his native tongue- and then instantly gets them back when he dries out, much to the amazement of the locals who'd rescued him.

{{quote| ''Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise. He understood what the beasts said, what the birds said, what the fishes said, and what the insects said. He understood what the rocks said deep under the earth when they bowed in towards each other and groaned; and he understood what the trees said when they rustled in the middle of the morning. He understood everything, from the bishop on the bench to the hyssop on the wall''}}

* Mars, the Incarnation of War, in Piers Anthony's [[Incarnations of Immortality]] series. There aren't any language barriers when it comes to War.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Some instances of this trope have popped up. The Vigilantes all speak English for starters. Kathryn Lucas reveals in the first book ''Weekend Warriors'' that she knows German (to what extent is not revealed), and she is quite fluent in Spanish. Yoko Akia is quite fluent in Chinese as the book ''Vendetta'' shows, ''Free Fall'' indicates that she can speak Japanese, but she states in ''Hide And Seek'' that she can't speak German, because it's so gutteral and too hard on her tongue. After the book ''Free Fall'', the Vigilantes are required to learn Spanish and German. Despite this, Isabelle Flanders is unable to speak Spanish very well in ''Cross Roads''. The book ''Fast Track'' has the Vigilantes finding out that Rena Gold speaks three languages, but they just scoff and one of them says, "Yeah! Fluent in Brooklynese, Southern belle, and kitchey-coo!" Harry Wong apparently knows a lot of languages, but it is never stated what they are or how many he knows, and it seems that he just uses them for cursing and showing that he is beyond furious.

* In Lisa Mangum's ''Hourglass Door'' trilogy, anyone who uses the titular door ( a time machine) gains a gift- causing pain, seeing " ripples" in the future, and so on. When the main character, Abby, finally travels back in time, to Italy, she learns that her gift is Language- no need to learn Italian. while this is handy, even more handy is the fact that not only does it apply to "regular" languages, it applies to the language of ''Time itself''.

* Bix in the [[Dinotopia]] series, though it may be a natural ability of her subspecies-Protoceratops Multilinguous, the translator Protoceratops. She can speak most of the saurian languages on the island and many human as well. The one other translator we meet, Chaz, in ''Hand of Dinotopia'' and ''Dinotopia Lost'' is the same way.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Tommy apparently matches his skill handling a quiz on obscure topics responding in whatever language Dick asks him in.

* Daniel Jackson from ''[[Stargate]]'' says he speaks 27 languages: since this was relatively early in the run, he's almost certainly picked up more.

*** In the first season episode ''Nightmares'' Giles claims to be able to read five languages.

*** It's not necessary to know a language to be able to translate it to some degree. Translation errors have been important plot points in BtVS and it's spinoff, which would suggest that the characters aren't fluent in as many languages as they appear to be.

* [[Angel]], though not a professional scholar, is also heavily multilingual, well versed in both human and demonic tongues. As a vampire born in 1727, and having lived in most of Europe and the U.S., he presumably has had plenty of time to learn.

** Gunn as well, though justified due to his brain upgrade.

* Cameron from ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' shows fluency in every language she has come in contact with (English, Armenian, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese as of the end of the second season). It stands to reason that she knows many more as well, as she does have [[Robot Girl|a very good memory]].

** In one episode when encountering a telepathic alien he makes specific not that she has an abnormal mind, it's apparently hardwired to understand languages and that's why she is so good at them. She even ended up translating tonal pulses from a [[Starfish Alien]] and communicate back. Hoshi eventually ended up as the one to program the early [[Universal Translator]] that the later series take for granted.

{{quote| '''Neelix''': "I was trying to negotiate with a Xenon-based life-form when the Universal Translator went off-line. Arturis here stepped in and acted as a perfect go-between--and he'd never heard either of our languages!"}}

** Presumably, Data can speak several languages and can learn one simply by flipping through a dictionary, though this is never used thanks to the [[Universal Translator]].

*** He does speak French at one point.

* Chuck from ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' is a passionate student of language, speaking French, Japanese and Mandarin (though her grasp of the latter is 'rusty'), and probably others.

** During the show's run, its section on ABC.com featured "files" for individual characters which included lists of spoken languages. You can find Sydney's [http://www.alias-tv.com/sydney.html here]; not counting English, it lists twelve(!) of them.

** It should be noted though, any viewer who can actually understand the languages in question should be able to tell that her pronunciation is ''atrocious'', to say the least. This isn't really a problem except in episodes where she's passing herself off as a native speaker of the language.

** While interrogating Sayid, Rousseau has at least some degree of knowledge in several languages. She's from France and is also fluent in English.

* In "The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne," Passepartout is a ''subversion'' of this. As Fog puts it: "He speaks fourteen languages. All of them ''badly''."

** He probably also knows quite a bit of Dutch - his family is originally from the Netherlands and he calls his grandmother "Oma."

** He can't speak much of Mandarin, he can only count to ten, say hello and say "your daughter is pregnant."

* Due to the multitude of personalities that are downloaded into [[Dollhouse|Echo]]'s consciousness, it's not surprising when she speaks mostly in Spanish in one episode to gain the trust of an abused female immigrant, which she does freely even in the presence of the police guards since they can't understand what they're saying.

** One of her personalities is a Russian girl, so she knows that language as well (although the actress is pretty bad at it).

** This skill is necessary for her species, as they are the only ones who have an allergic reaction to the microbes and can't take the easy way out.

{{quote| "What can I say? One day I had a gonzo headache and before it went away I could read and speak Chinese. And it was a bad afternoon, too, lemme tell you."}}

* ''[[Chuck]]'s'' Intersect contains several languages which he can speak (after flashing on them).

** Like all his Intersect 2.0 skills, it lasts only a few minutes.

** It is strange that he does not know any Spanish, as he grew up in Miami.

** That's the punchline. Plus it's kind of unstandable considering he probably had other things on his mind rather than learning another language and he left Miami when he was 17. It's likely he learnt those other languages because he had to in order to do his job.

** Beckett can understand Russian, having spent several months as an exchange student in Ukraine. She never speaks it on the show, though, and instead goes with [[Just a Stupid Accent]]. Note that Stana Katic, who plays Beckett, can speak 5 languages: Serbian, Croatian, French, English and Italian; and can do the accents in: British, Irish, Eastern European, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and South African.

*** Four languages. Croatian and Serbian, along with Bosnian and Montenegrin, are pretty much the same language. It's a common joke that anyone from those countries is technically able to speak 4 languages since early childhood.

* ''[[White Wolf]]'' has the Linguistics skill. In early editions of the game, each rank in that skill (up to five) gained you one additional language. Eventually the [[All Writers Are American|writers]] realized that this wasn't nearly epic enough compared to the rest of the games, so now each dot ''doubles'' the amount of languages you speak. A skill level of five was supposed to represent top human ability, and knowing sixteen additional languages is about right looking at the Real Life section below.

** The trope itself gets parodied in some of the flavor text describing the Linguistic skill in ''Adventure,'' when it turns out the team Omniglot...isn't. Sure, he speaks six dialects of Sumerian, but that doesn't mean he speaks ''Spanish.''

** If you have demons in your DNA ([[You Fail Biology Forever|whatever that means]]), you can learn an infernal power, Tongue of Babel, that allows you to comprehend and speak any language, permanently.

** The Willow Whisper cantrip from Changeling the Dreaming lets you literally talk to everything and anything in it's own language, with the exception of cold iron.

 

* ''[[Spirit of the Century]]'' makes no pretenses toward being realistic in this area. A character can speak a number of additional languages equal to their Academics skill (maximum of + 5 for player characters), however the player does not need to choose their languages up front. Rather, these are considered language "slots" which can be filled as is convenient. This effectively makes any character with decent academics an Omniglot until they run out of language slots, as they can just fill in whatever languages they encounter. The "Linguist" stunt adds an extra 5 language slots, and the "Gift of Tongues" stunt takes this a step further. Any character with this stunt can speak ''any'' mainstream language by default and can spend their normal language slots on esoteric languages they have no business ever having learned.

** The rulebook quote:

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* As the protagonist of ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', you know almost every language you come across, seeing them as subtitles. A Wookiee character is surprised that you can understand him - really, to facilitate [[Bilingual Dialogue]] most Star Wars characters understand if not speak several languages - and you have the option to wonder to an assassination droid with translator capacities why you can't understand the Sandpeople tongue. HK tells you that he knows you pick up languages with the help of [[The Force]], but it doesn't substitute for actual linguistic training. Towards the end of the game, {{spoiler|only you can}} understand Rakatan, which startles your companions. As {{spoiler|the Dark Lord Revan, you}} ''ripped the language out of their heads'' and forced them to comprehend Basic.

** ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' handles the situation a little more believably; you don't actually know all those languages, but a small sonic imprint sensor you picked up in the first level is equipped with a translator unit that helps you out and you don't run across anyone who speaks anything obscure.

** Big Boss, his father, is not any different, being explicitly shown to know Russian and English (the former due to his tutelage under The Boss), and is implied to be fluent in French as well, and at the very ''least'' has some knowledge of Spanish in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]''. In one briefing tape, its also implied that he subconsciously learned how to speak cat.

** Kazuhira Miller, aside from Japanese and English (the former being his native language), was also stated to be fluent in Spanish.

* [[Alien Among Us|Zoe]] from ''[[Girls in Space]]'' speaks ''every'' Earth language. She doesn't bring this up because [[I Thought Everyone Could Do That!|she thought everyone could do that.]]

* R.L. in ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' is Domain's version of this, understanding and speaking the species-specific languages of all his employees... {{spoiler|including feline, which is how he knew Frank was going to challenge him for supremacy.}}

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Hissy in ''[[Tales of MU]]'' speaks just about every language that's been mentioned in the story and can apparently pick up new ones very easily, as they're all simpler than [[Starfish Language|her native Lizardfolk language]].

* Vork from ''[[The Guild]]'' claims to know all languages at one point. Aside from English, we see him speak Korean and Hindi.

** This is very likely a reference to the quote at the top of this page.

 

 

* Bubbles of the [[Powerpuff Girls]] can apparently speak pretty much any language. This isn't limited to human languages, either.

** "[[Speaks Fluent Animal|She's talking to squirrels again!]]"

** Oh, that's nothing. Apparently Starfire and her kind have the ability to gain and understand another's language just by kissing them (which she demonstrated by smooching a Japanese stranger).

** Actually, the Tamaranians can absorb new languages just by physical contact. Starfire is...uhm...well, she just seems to like using kissing to do so, as for the longest time she doesn't actually seem to understand what a kiss actually ''means'' on Earth, but she eventually figured it out. Her comic book counterpart is the same way, but she ''does'' know what a kiss means by this point.

* An episode of ''[[All Grown Up]]'' shows Susie Carmichael knowing various words in various languages as part of a language contest. She claims that she has a "freaky knack" for this. Problem is, such an ability is attested only once outside of the episode in question. <ref>In ''Rugrats in Paris'', Angelica boasts that she's going to Paris and brags about learning the language. Susie responds in perfect French, "I feel sorry for the French people who will hear you."</ref> The even bigger problem is that this ability solely exists to eventually {{spoiler|force Susie into picking [["Friend or Idol?" Decision|helping her friends win the language contest over auditioning for a singing contest]].}}

* It's a little more subtle than most of these examples, but Velma on "[[Scooby Doo]]" seems to be able to read absolutely any language, no matter how obscure or ancient.

* [[Phineas and Ferb|Ferb]] speaks French, Japanese, Martian and Dolphin.

 

 

* It's perfectly common for people in much of Africa and in many parts of Asia to easily know five languages or more even without any formal education, simply due to the fact that there are dozens of languages, often completely unrelated, packed into small geographic areas, and apart from the local languages it tends to be all but necessary to know the official language of your country, as well.

* It's also very common in immigrant societies (New York is a great example.) In some suburbs of Sydney, Australia, you will find merchants and shopkeepers who fluently speak (with quirks) English, Vietnamese, Mandarin ''and'' Cantonese Chinese, and, of all things, ''Lebanese Arabic.'' Guess what nationalities abound around that suburb!

* Jeremiah Curtain was said to speak over seventy languages at the time of his death. He certainly collected a lot of fairy tales in the original languages.

* Noah Webster learned 26 languages for his work in dictionaries.