Common Tongue: Difference between revisions

 

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== Fan Fic ==

* ''The Basalt City Chronicles'' averts this; in the Empire of Smilodons, it's said that there's a language for every island and a dialect for every village. Some cultures even have more than one language, for example the Deltharians (most of whom are deaf) have a spoken language used by the few who can hear.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' uses Basic, the language of the Galactic Republic. Nearly everyone understands it, even aliens that lack the ability to speak it. Likewise, most aliens have one language that they speak constantly. Interestingly, multilinguism is quite common—Han, for example, speaks Huttese, Wookie (though he sounds really stupid when he tries), and Rodian.

 

== Literature ==

* In the ''[[Uplift]]'' series the ridiculously organized and stagnant culture of galactic civilization has resulted in at least twelve different Galactic languages (numbered 1-12) designed to accommodate the wide variety in vocal structures, humans seem to have the easiest time with Gal 7. One of the assorted ways that [[Humans Are Special|Earthclan]] is different from the other oxy-breathing races is that they have languages other than Galactic, mostly Anglic and Trinary, a poetic language designed for dolphins.

* Generally, [[Harry Harrison]]'s novels set in the future will have Esperanto (a failed [[Real Life]] attempt at making one language out of many) as the language of the old Empire and as lingua franca of all worlds. In the ''[[Literature/Deathworld|Deathworld]]'' novel ''The Ethical Engineer'', Jason finds himself on a [[Lost Colony]] and tries to converse with the locals. After some attempts, he quickly finds out that their language is a degraded form of Esperanto and is easily able to communicate.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* In ''[[Doctor Who]],'' this trope is subverted- the TARDIS is translating for both the Doctor and his companions. This comes across to the audience as British-accented English.

** Except for the Ninth Doctor, who had a Northern accent.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' the "Gothic" language this purpose for the Imperium, acting as a way for cultures from different worlds to communicate. There is also High Gothic, which is used for official purposes and has a role similar to Latin in medieval Europe in that no-one actually uses it as a first language but scholars and those of high rank are expected to know it.

* ''Dark Dungeon'' RPG, supplement ''Samaris, island of Adventure''. In the world of Yaddrin, the Common Tongue is spoken by most merchants and travelers.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' makes heavy use of [[Translator Microbes]] in the form of computers that need to be regularly updated for new languages, as practically every species in the setting is as linguistically diverse as humans. There is, however, a "trade tongue", which Shepard refers to as "Galactic" at one point—a simplified artificial interspecies language, essentially Space Esperanto.

* ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' gave us Na'ven or Alltongue, a magical language spoken in all of Arcadia (a parallel universe). Its omnipresence is justified with the fact that you can become a fluid speaker after listening to it for just a few minutes, as April does upon her first visit to Arcadia. It's magic.

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' actually has ''five'' common languages: Galstandard West, East, Eight, Brown, and Peroxide. Given recent revelations that Galstandard Peroxide is only spoken by ocean-dwelling creatures (with a few exceptions), it seems as though each language is tailored to a certain general type of vocal organs. The language structure evidently differs, and may leave a strong accent when speaking another language.

* Most units in ''[[Erfworld]]'' speak Language, but Natural Allies have their own (unnamed) languages, and only a few members of each tribe speak Language.

 

== Web Original ==

* [[Aliens Speaking English|English]] is the common language of the ''entire universe'' in ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'', as explained [http://journal-of-murazrai.xanga.com/755247488/page-104-random-chaos-fighters-tidbit-1/ here].

* The First Federation of ''[[Orion's Arm]]'' attempted to standardize "Anglic", but once the Feds lost power Anglic evolved into a family of languages several times more diverse than the current Indo-European family.

 

== Western Animation ==

* All the various cultures in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' appear to share the same language. From pole to pole and around the world.

* ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He Man and The Masters of The Universe]]'' and ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She Ra Princess of Power]]'': Pretty much all of the countless species and races on Eternia speak or at least understand English. Furthermore the same applies to Etheria, Trolla, Primus... pretty much any planet or dimension the characters encounter, including Earth making this also a case of [[Aliens Speaking English]].

 

== Real Life ==

* English is the most universal example of this trope In [[Real Life]], due mostly to the very expansive English speaking British Empire and later the global dominance of the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. Although it is not the most natively spoken language, it is the most often taught as a second language, and thus the most widely spoken. This is confirmed by international treaty, which stipulates English as the official language of aerial and maritime communications, and is considered a working requirement for various scientific fields. They don't call it "The world language" for nothing.

* [[Esperanto]] is an attempt at this.

* Further constructed languages attempting this: Interlingua and Ido.

* As part of the legacy of the conquests of [[Alexander the Great]], Greek used to be pervasive throughout the old Eastern Roman Empire, to the point where even [[The Bible]] was translated into it so that it could be understood by Hellenized Israel. Hellenistic Greek is actually the Trope Co-Namer, as its most basic and used variety was known as ''Koine Dialektos'' (literally, the Common Tongue).

* Russian, conversely, enjoyed this status in the Communist bloc; learning Russian there was like learning English in Europe. It still works that way in the countries of the former Soviet Union.