Do the Atlantis teams use universal translators?

[Cpt.McLane]

I was wondering how the Atlantis expedition members could communicate with each other on Atlantis. I remember an episode where some members of the team had problems to understand some (I mean they were Asians) new teammembers. And even if they talk in English, how do they communicate with the Athosians, the Genii and other Pegasus Galaxy cultures?

[The Doctor]

It's easier if everyone speaks English. Can't keep having to learn a new language every time you come to a new planet. Leaves less time for action and sutff.

On base, they use English to communicate simply because most people already speak it.

[peragrin]

well to date most races seem to use a derivative of ancient, with various styles of writings.

Even the Wraith use it. While it won'tbe quick the learning curve would be short.

[Prior_of_the_Ori]

I believe one of the initial concepts for Atlantis was that the Expedition find universal translators to explain why they easily communicate with these Humans from other worlds but I think they dropped it.

[SoulReaver]

I was wondering how the Atlantis expedition members could communicate with each other on Atlantis. I remember an episode where some members of the team had problems to understand some (I mean they were Asians) new teammembers. And even if they talk in English, how do they communicate with the Athosians, the Genii and other Pegasus Galaxy cultures?

this has already been addressed countless times mein Herr ^_^

basically : the following are the two things that have always have been & will always have to be accepted as having no rational "explanation" other than suspension of disbelief :

1) sound in space (cf. space battles)
2) aliens speaking english (or german or other, depending on country)

now some sci-fi series such as BSG don't have aliens, thereby warding off problem #2. #1 still subsists though



as for the personnel on Atlantis, obviously they all speak english. nothing unusual about that

[iqbalg1]

It's been said, a few times, that they ignored that fact because it was a waste of time and if you spent half the episode understanding the aliens, wouldn't leave much time for any decent plot

[jhkplaya888]

everyone speaks english, cause apparently the wraith and everyone magically learned the english lang even though earth were it originated is in another galaxy....

[ManiacMike]

Its the problem Star Trek started, but later explained by their locator's or walkie-talkies have translators in them.

I would of liked them finding translators after having a language problem. But then it wouldn't really be stargate if they had to use a translator to talk to aliens.

[Xzyl]

It's been said, a few times, that they ignored that fact because it was a waste of time and if you spent half the episode understanding the aliens, wouldn't leave much time for any decent plot

Except it is not really a credible argument if you think about it. Both SG-1 and SGA each had a universal that could be used to explain away why everybody could understand everybody else. For SG-1 it was Gould. Every race in the MW was in contact with the Gould at one point or another it would make sense that they knew their language.

For SG-1 it would have been explained that when Oneill and the others came back from first mission to Abydos they brought back Jackson's notes on the language that he completed just before his "death". Oneill only bothered to learn a few commonly heard phrases from Ra's guards. Carter fully studied the notes but only focused on the written form and not the pronunciation. By the time of Children of the Gods after the second return from Abydos they give everyone a crash course in the very basics of Gould before heading to Chulack. After returning from Chulack Tealc quickly picks up English.

The way it would be implemented would be like this. When you initially hear an off worlder speak it is at first in Gould with subtitles but quickly transitions to and stays in the viewer's language. As the show progresses it slowly gets dropped away as it will no longer be necessary to remind the viewers that everybody out there is not really speaking an Earth language. It would be brought back in every once in a long while in order to clue new viewers in.

The system would work similarly with SGA with of course the main difference being that the universal language in Peg is Ancient.

No cop outs, no waiting half the story for someone to figure out how to translate what is going on, no endless reading of subtitles. It would have been a simple and effective system.

[Cpt.McLane]

Well in Star Trek the Klingons spoke Klingon. It was introduced in the first movie. Some scenes where with subtitles and later the Klingons spoke English, but it was meant to be Klingon. Simple as that, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis had a chance to do it the same way.

[peragrin]

there are also many minor examples of learning a new language, or translating an unknown writing. In the early part of each show they have several episodes where they learn the new language, or how to read the writing in question.

Daniel was always pulling out an old text and comparing one style of writing on earth to an unknown language, and being able to translate enough of it to understand. every once in a while he was wrong tooo.

On Atlantis they have the ancients notes on the old language of the planet in question. In the episode where the Genii captured a bunch of SGA members the wanted poster had 3-4 written languages on it. http://www.stargatecaps.com/sga/s2/2...5Fetat298.html
http://www.stargatecaps.com/sga/s2/2...5Fetat265.html

The more languages you learn the faster you can learn new ones.

[Mister Oragahn]

I believe one of the initial concepts for Atlantis was that the Expedition find universal translators to explain why they easily communicate with these Humans from other worlds but I think they dropped it.

I suppose it would have been a waste of budget...

I mean:

MCKAY
Oh look, those are said to be translators. If I can activate them...

*zap!* everyone understands lantian and lantian derived languages.

Geez. Seriously. They pull fancy tech out of their asses everyday, but can't just have one or two minutes of an episode to deal with this.

[Dev Corvin]

I seem to remember Joseph Mallozzi posting about this on his blog... I think he said something about nanites provided by the Stargate itself introduced in order to translate simple languages from similar root languages (latin for Lantean languages, etc).

[Aewon]

well to date most races seem to use a derivative of ancient, with various styles of writings.

You'd be surprised at how much a language can change in 10,000 years.

[Mister Oragahn]

You'd be surprised at how much a language can change in 10,000 years.

Less if the people are guided by Oracles, and thus keep their own language following the ancient's mysterious language.