Alien Languages

Percy Greg first introduced the utilization of Alien Languages into the genre of Science Fiction in his novel, Across the Zodiac, in the year 1880.  In this novel, the creation of an anti-gravitational matter called apergy, allows for the spacecraft, the astronaut, to go on an expedition to Mars.  On this planet they encounter another species that speak a totally different language.  This has been depicted as the first utilization of an Alien Language in Science Fiction.  This is depicted in the story in one instance when the aliens were translating different thoughts into an alien language (Greg).  The utilization of the Alien Language by Percy Greg forever changed the genre of Science Fiction.  Not only did it add different angles in which to create stories and novels, it also created a worldwide phenomenon that has led to the “reality” of Alien Languages. 

In the short story, A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum, the spaceship Ares lands on Mars with a crew of four men from all over the world.  The American, Dick Jarvis, sets on an expedition of the planet, and when his rocket is 800 miles from the main ship, the engine goes out and it crashes in the middle of nowhere.  Dick decides to try and walk back instead of waiting for the others to rescue him.  On his way he encounters many strange and interesting things.  He comes across an octopus-like creature trying to kill an ostrich-like creature.  He comes to a conclusion that the ostrich-like species is an intelligent life form and rescues it by shooting the other creature.  The creature that Dick Jarvis rescues “says” his name is Tweel.  Tweel decides to go with Jarvis on the way back to the ship.  This is where the importance of Alien Languages comes along.  Jarvis and Tweel begin to try and communicate.  It is depicted that Tweel is able to comprehend some English, however Jarvis has a difficult time with Tweel’s language.  This attempt is depicted as “a hit-or-miss affair”(Meyers, 87).   As the story progresses, the two main characters run into to several other creatures such as silicon-based “pyramids” and barrel creatures.  They notice that the barrel creatures are running back in forth into a series of tunnels, so they decide to investigate.  They uncover a crystal that has the ability to heal anything.  Jarvis removes this crystal and is attacked by the barrel creatures but the crew soon rescues him.  This story depicts one common thought in Science Fiction that Aliens are very intelligent creatures that are able to comprehend the human language.  This story is a great answer to John W. Campbell’s statement, “"Write me a creature who thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man."  This story helped propel not only the utilization of Alien Languages in Science Fiction, but it also created a demand for more meaningful Alien roles in the genre. 

Unlike A Martian Odyssey, where there was some comprehension between man and alien, the short story To Serve Man by Damon Knight utilizes the opposite theme.  Some Science Fiction authors warn about the dangers that surround the inability for the human race to accurately communicate with and trust an Alien species.  In this short story, set in the Cold War era, there is a special meeting of the United Nations where three aliens are delivering their speech on what they want to offer they Earth.  They give Earth limitless power, the ability to live longer, and the ability to stop explosions.  This has allowed the aliens, the Kanamits, to gain the trust of the human species and they soon allow humans to visit their planet.  A member of the United Nations and a translator find one of the Kanamits books and begin to translate it.  They soon realize that it was a cookbook on how to “serve man.”  This story depicts the fear that many have about Aliens and their ability to outsmart humans.  This is also portrayed in the move, Mars Attacks! In this movie, the humans believe that the Aliens come in peace when in fact they are on a mission to take over Earth.  There is a scene in this movie where the humans are translating what the Aliens are saying as, “We Come in Peace”, but shortly after they go on a killing rampage (Mars Attacks!).  These two works of Science Fiction depict the overall theme of the fear the human race has of the superior beings and our incapability to communicate with them.  This is why we have things such as SETI so we can hopefully find some way of communicating with aliens so these scenarios do not occur.  Things such as SETI and xenolinguistics are in place so that humans might have the possibility to accurately communicate with unearthly beings if the interaction ever happens.