Languages

Overview

All employees must have passed a fluency prerequisite for Galactic Common to allow them to converse at a minimum level with other crewmembers, as required by corporate hiring standards. However, use of other languages may be used in private exchanges between crewmembers.

Unless another language is specified or set to default, anything a character says will be in Galactic Common. All crew members are expected to know Galactic Common as it is the standard language of interaction aboard the station. In addition to Galactic Common, all crew members will also know the language of their species. All crew may also pick a language of their choosing to have fluency in.

While in-game, players may see what languages their characters know by using the Check-Known-Languages verb. In order to speak a language that is not Galactic Common, a character must begin their message with a : (A # or . will also work) and the letter or number that corresponds to their language similar to speaking on a department radio. For example, to speak in Sol Common, one would type say :1, then their message. To speak over the Medical channel in Sol Common, one would type say :m :1, then their message.

As expected, a character that does not know a language will be incapable of speaking it or understanding it.

Common Languages

All crew members regardless of species can be fluent in any of these languages. Fluency in Tradeband, Gutter, or Clownish can be chosen in character creation. Galactic Common say :9

The common galactic tongue. All crew members are required to be fluent in this.

Can be spoken by cyborgs/AIs

Tradeband say :2

Better described as universal haggling, Tradeband is a carefully crafted manner of speaking using a myriad of words from many alien languages, as well as a number of human ones. This amalgam of terms from vastly different origins results in a straight forward conversational style using universal words and talking points with clear, practices enunciation to negotiate and conclude business as soon as possible. To someone unfamiliar with Tradeband, a speaker may seem as if they are stating a series of random points with no context. Commonly spoken among shipping crews, colonists, businessmen, and long term spacers.

Can be spoken by cyborgs/AIs

Gutter say :3

Gutter is a language commonly marked as another trade language prevalent among most interspecies trade lanes and is popular among humans living further away from their species influence. Being used among traders and smugglers alike, the language is as popular among normal society as it is among criminal and paramilitary groups; making it a language often associated with behind the counter dealings. Due to how easy it is to understand, however, many aliens and humans have learned it as a second or third language for the sole purpose of communicating with each other easier.

Can be spoken by cyborgs/AIs

Clownish say :0

The language of clown planet. Mother tongue of clowns throughout the Galaxy.

Alien Languages

These languages are the the native language of their respective species. While most can be spoken by a person of another species (Usually with great difficulty), they're exclusive to their respective species in gameplay with the exception of station-born Diona who will be able to speak the languages of people the Diona stole blood from as a nymph (Needs testing) and Cyborgs/AIs.

Humans - Sol Common say :1

A bastardized hybrid of informal English and elements of Mandarin Chinese; the common language of the Sol system

Can be spoken by cyborgs/AIs

Tajaran - Siik'tajr say :j

One of the many languages spoken by the tajaran of Ahdomai, Siik'tajr is a lowbrow tongue considered to be the most commonly encountered from this species. This language, when spoken by a tajaran, can be described as a series of various feline growls in combination with movement of various body parts, such as the tail. Non-tajaran speakers may have difficulty fully replicating this speech and may come off with stilted speech as an accent.

Unathi - Sintha'unathi say :o

Sintha'unathi is a language with many different accents and dialects, and Unathi can almost immediately tell where the other hailed from due to their disparate, clustered and widespread inhabitation of Moghes. Though they all do speak the same language. Due to the structure of an unathi's maw, similar to an alligator's, non-unathi speakers will find great difficulty in learning this language without heavy practice.

Skrell - Skrellian say :k

The Skrell language can be best described as a series of hums, warbles, or croaks that linguists have difficulty deciphering. Much of this difficulty is attributed to the range of emotion and tense a skrell is able to convey compared to most human languages. Due to the dissimilar aspects of the two languages, the vocal structure of a skrell is intrinsically different than that of a human, and as such, when learning a language such as human English, they typically adopt the accent of their tutor. Skrell have trouble expressing emotion through simple words and body language when speaking a human language such as English due to its limitations, but are naturally more capable than a human in the arts if they were to sing or play an instrument due to their use of tone when speaking their native language. However, how different emotions are expressed between different species often differ.

Slime People - Bubblish say :f

To speak, the slime core within the person vibrates accordingly to generate the sound needed to communicate in the human language. Bubblish is spoken by a certain combination of popping noises, easily understood by other slimes. To touch and feel, a manipulation of cells is used in a similar the human hand is. To hear, slime people use a much similar function as when they speak; their cores pick up vibrations from spoken language and interpret them into words. Movement itself is accomplished through a sort of nervous system from the core.

Vox - Vox-pidgin say :v

The common tongue of the various Vox ships making up the Shoal. It sounds like chaotic shrieking to everyone else.

Kidan - Chittin say :4

Their native language is a series of clicks, buzzes, head, antennae movements, and pheromones, however they can mimic human speech (barely) using clicks and buzzes drawn out into words, with antenna use for emphasis and indicating emotion, this causes Human speech to appear rather blunted to them, due to the lack of olfactory and movement use. Due to them being mostly unable to use tone, their speech appears almost perpetually friendly, dispite what they may mean to say. -- this causes Z, and V noises to be slightly elongated, as well as a general buzzy tone. S sounds are difficult to seperate from Z noises, as well as C noises.The Kidan written language consists of woven strands of fabric of various colors, which come together to form words.

Dionaea - Rootspeak say :q

A creaking, subvocal language spoken instinctively by the Dionaea. Due to the unique makeup of the average Diona, a phrase of Rootspeak can be a combination of anywhere from one to twelve individual voices and notes.

Machine People (IPCs) - Trinary say :5

A modification of binary to allow fuzzy logic. 0 is no, 1 is maybe, 2 is yes. Credited with giving Machine People the ability to think creatively.

Can be spoken by cyborgs/AIs

Vulpkanin - Canilunzt say :7

The guttural language spoken and utilized by the inhabitants of Vazzend system, composed of growls, barks, yaps, and heavy utilization of ears and tail movements.Vulpkanin speak this language with ease.

Xenomorphs - Xenomorph say :6

The common tongue of the xenomorphs.

Hivemind Languages

Unlike other languages, these cannot be spoken over radio and when spoken will be heard by (And only by) every other character who speaks that language. Despite acting more like a radio channel, these will appear in the list of languages a character knows.

Cyborgs, AIs, and Drones - Robot Talk say :b Also known as Binary

Most human stations support free-use communications protocols and routing hubs for synthetic use.

Maintainance Drones can only receive this language.

Maintainance Drones - Drone Talk say :d

A heavily encoded damage control coordination stream.

Wryn - Wryn Hivemind say :y

Changelings - Changeling Hivemind say :g

Although they are normally wary and suspicious of each other, changelings can commune over a distance.

Xenomorphs - Xeno Hivemind say :a

Shadowlings - Shadowling Hivemind say :8

Cortical Borer - Cortical Link say :x

Cortical borers possess a strange link between their tiny minds

Swarmers - Swarmer say :z

A heavily encoded alien binary pattern.

Animal Languages

Same as Alien Languages, but spoken by animal equivalents of humanoids and less notable.

Monkeys - Chimpanzee say :mo

Neara - Neara say :ne

Stok - Stok say :st

Farwa - Farwa say :fa

Wolpin - Wolpin say :vu

Technical Languages

Not a language at all, but treated as such in code

Noise say :

Noises Used for audible emotes, such as screams.