Strange Syntax Speaker: Difference between revisions

== Fan Works ==

* [[Nobody Dies]]: Arael's speech can be... interesting to try to decipher:

"I have done (created [brought the {saved us all} next age] wonders) the impossible." }}

 

* Played for comic effect in ''[[Airplane!]]!'' with [[Jive Turkey|Jive]].

* ''[[V for Vendetta]]'': V's vernacular vigilantly vexes viewers via very variant vocabulary.

'''V:''' I am sure they will say so. }}

* The Junkions from ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' speak entirely in commercial jingles and other pop-culture soundbites. A visitor's ability to understand them depends entirely on their ability to "talk TV".

** This appears to be a [[Shout-Out]] to [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s song "Dare To Be Stupid", which also uses commercial slogans for its lyrics and is the [[Leitmotif]] for the Junkions.

** Also from the movie, [[The Scrappy|Wheelie]] speaks entirely in rhyme.

'''Grimlock:''' "Me Grimlock fool?"

'''Wheelie:''' "Picture you got, now fool you not!" }}

* The teens from ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' speak Nadsat, which is includes Cockney rhyming slang, Anglicized Russian and German words, and a generally unsual syntax, such as Dim's assertion, "Bedways is rightways now..."

* Arguably, ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'', though [[Your Mileage May Vary]].

* ''The Book of Dave'' by Will Self has a [[Con Lang|futuristic language]] called Mokni, a phoneticized form of Cockney mixed with bastardized London cabbie slang.

* The Chur, from Katherine Kerr's ''Snare'', typically speak at a frequency so low humans can't hear it, but can speak human languages if they strain. When doing so they use then-now-next strange grammar, including giving verbs a suffix indicating time ("they say-then", "we go-soon"), and presenting alternatives when asking a question or when uncertain ("We know-not if you lie not lie", "You understand not-understand?").

* Herald Alberich from [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s [[Heralds of Valdemar]] series routinely speaks Valdemaran with Karsite word order. He was born and raised in Karse and only ended up in Valdemar after being kidnapped/rescued by a [[Intellectual Animal|Companion]], who eventually psychically fed Valdemarian vocabulary into his head... and ''only'' vocabulary, leading Alberich to use Valdemarian words with Karsite grammar.

* In [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''Deadeye Dick'', Haitian Creole is said to only have a present tense, leading to some very odd grammar. Of course, it's implied that the Haitians simply don't bother trying to teach the American proper grammar.

* The cockroaches from ''[[The Underland Chronicles|Gregor The Overlander]]'' tend to mix up verb and subject placement as well as using repetition of certain sentence elements, such as "Do it, I can, do it," or "be small Human, be?"

* In ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', Binabik is using progressive aspect even when he is meaning to express habitual or stative verbs.

* In "Bargaining," the first episode of Season 6 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', the Buffybot's [[Bond One-Liner|punning]] still isn't working properly. When she finally stakes the vamp, she exclaims, "That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!" Perhaps it was stuck on dadaist humor.

* The 456 from ''[[Torchwood|Children of Earth]]'' seem to have shades of this in the beginning. They speak in a way that is intelligible but reinforces their creepiness. The civil servant who deals with them is suitably freaked.

'''Frobisher''': I am speaking!

'''The 456''': We would speak.

'''The 456''': Return...soon. }}

* In an episode of ''[[Titus]]'', Christopher knows Erin is hiding something because, when she's lying, words not flow from her mouth good.

'''Christopher Titus''': (pause) Something from me hiding you are? }}

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the alien Chantho begins every sentence with Chan, and ends it with Tho. Apparently, to not do this is rudeness the equivalent of swearing in her language. (Compare Japanese use of ''[[Keigo]]'' words such as ''desu'' or ''-masu''.)

* Michael Harris in ''[[Newhart]]'' speaks in alliteration.

* O'Niell from ''[[Stargate SG-1|Stargate SG 1]]'' does this the second time he has the ancient's knowledge downloaded into his brain.

Jack: Following. You. Still. Not. }}

 

== Music ==

* Eric Idle's ''Rutland Weekend Television'' had the host of a short chat show and his guest talking like this.

 

 

** ''[[Star Control]]'''s Daktaklakpak provide a similar challenge -- their language is so mathematical and formulaic that initially the tech teams don't even think they're ''sentient.'' Once you obtain a translator their speech remains formulaic and stilted: "Statement: Daktaklakpak are superior to Humans. Interrogation: What are Humans doing in our space?"

* The Orz from ''[[Star Control]] 2'' have [[Starfish Alien|thought processes so alien]] that the best translators cannot fully process their language. Translations end up using a combination of best guesses and mixed metaphors for the unknown words.

** More relevantly, their lines use very idiosyncratic grammar.

* The player character in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' can speak almost every alien language, so you get subtitles even for what the Jawas on Tatooine are saying. Nevertheless, even subtitled, their syntax is rather strange.

* Thorn of ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' uses inverted sentences, like Yoda (and usually says the same thing Zorn says, except Zorn doesn't invert them.)

* The Emps from ''[[Ultima VII]]''; passive voice seems to be what is always used by them.

** Also, the gargoyles. At one point in ''U7'', it is mentioned that they speak in "Gargish syntax" to preserve their cultural ties.

* Nya! Of ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'', both this and a regular [[Verbal Tic]], Bowyer uses. Nya!

* Similarly, Fawful of the [[Mario & Luigi]] series has this practically programmed into the speech center of his brain...

* Fnarf of ''[[The Bard's Tale]]'' had a tendency to speak with alliteration.

* The Chiss bartender Baldarek on Nar Shaddaa in ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Star Wars: Jedi Outcast]]'' has problems speaking Basic and constantly confuses singular and plural nouns.

* The people of Xian (a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] version of China) in ''[[Golden Sun]]'' use some strange sentence structures (though not nearly as strange as some fanfic writers portray it), presumably to show that they normally speak a different language from the heroes. This is present even in the Japanese versions, as references to it are made in the ''4koma Gag Battle'' doujinshi.

** Curiously, Xian's successor-nations in ''Dark Dawn'' are filled with people who speak normally.

* In an episode of [[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic SatAM]], the wizard Lazar speaks similarly to Yoda, reversing nouns and verbs.

* As established in ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'', [[Transformers Generation 1|Junkions]] speak in odd mishmashes of television quotes.

'''Ultra Magnus:''' "What'd he say?!"

'''Rodimus Prime:''' "We're gonna get killed." }}

* Ed on [[Ed Edd and Eddy]] was known for this.

'''Ed:''' Do not adjust your set! (''runs after Edd'') }}