Theories on why everyone speaks English?

[Filipino]

The Daniel Jackson/Unas stories are reasons why aliens speak English. It gets a bit tedius after awhile listening to grunts and growls.

[TheUniqueDrone]

This is my idea regarding the aliens speaking english problem:
I think that English was the language spoken by the Four Races, a common language which allowed those races to communicate each other. The Goa'uld copied this language also, which would explain why they can speak English, as well as their Jaffa and Human slaves. The Ancients may have also given the language to the Humans of Earth, and this language was changed over the course of millenia (for example, the basic sounds for 'mother/mum/ma' and 'father/pa' exist in over 90%, I believe, of the world's languages, so just a little fact there), and luckily, our spoken English is very similar to the original common spoken dialect of the Four Races. Maybe there was no common writing between the races, except the writing found on Ernest's planet, but the writing may not have been passed down. The reason the Abydonians did not speak English was because Ra seemed to speak mainly in Egyptian/Goa'uld language, and therefore they would not have no use for English.
My explanation seems to fit the Stargate Universe, and does not rely on a Universal Translator that has not been shown anywhere on the show, I just hope there are no inconsistencies anywhere in my hypothesis .

[Easter Lily]

This is my idea regarding the aliens speaking english problem:
I think that English was the language spoken by the Four Races, a common language which allowed those races to communicate each other. The Goa'uld copied this language also, which would explain why they can speak English, as well as their Jaffa and Human slaves. The Ancients may have also given the language to the Humans of Earth, and this language was changed over the course of millenia (for example, the basic sounds for 'mother/mum/ma' and 'father/pa' exist in over 90%, I believe, of the world's languages, so just a little fact there), and luckily, our spoken English is very similar to the original common spoken dialect of the Four Races. Maybe there was no common writing between the races, except the writing found on Ernest's planet, but the writing may not have been passed down. The reason the Abydonians did not speak English was because Ra seemed to speak mainly in Egyptian/Goa'uld language, and therefore they would not have no use for English.

Considering that English is one of the youngest languages... a hybrid of various European languages, I doubt that, historically that would hold water even in the Stargate universe.
The use of English in alien-based sci-fi shows are more metaphorical rather than literal, based on the idea that the status of modern English (being the international language of our time) is the equivalent some ancient universal language.

I think fundamentally the reason why aliens seem to speak English is the same reason why Anime characters all speak Japanese, whether the shows are set in HK, NY or LA.
Incidentally, I'm still pretty intrigued by the device used in The Hunt for Red October when the Propaganda Officer reads from Ramius' Bible in Russian and then as the camera pans around the room he switches to English. Quite clever... methinks...

[ShadowMaat]

The Red October device actually gets used a lot. It's a convenient segue for situations like that. And for all we know, there could very well BE translation issues but, as with so many other things, they all take place off screen in order to save time.

[Osiris-RA]

So how come all the aliens everyone encounters speak English? Golly gee, isn't that a bit convenient?? Why not have it more realistic and have them speaking another language so that it's impossible to communicate with them?

There. Now you have your own topic. Leave the Czechs alone.

Well, I think mostly we just think they're way smarter than us and have a higher learning curve, say, five minutes into the show. It's alway nice to think there's something more intelligent than us humans out there.

didnt I post on something like this yesterday?

[UlsterBob]

This is my idea regarding the aliens speaking english problem:
I think that English was the language spoken by the Four Races, a common language which allowed those races to communicate each other. The Goa'uld copied this language also, which would explain why they can speak English, as well as their Jaffa and Human slaves. The Ancients may have also given the language to the Humans of Earth, and this language was changed over the course of millenia (for example, the basic sounds for 'mother/mum/ma' and 'father/pa' exist in over 90%, I believe, of the world's languages, so just a little fact there), and luckily, our spoken English is very similar to the original common spoken dialect of the Four Races. Maybe there was no common writing between the races, except the writing found on Ernest's planet, but the writing may not have been passed down. The reason the Abydonians did not speak English was because Ra seemed to speak mainly in Egyptian/Goa'uld language, and therefore they would not have no use for English.
My explanation seems to fit the Stargate Universe, and does not rely on a Universal Translator that has not been shown anywhere on the show, I just hope there are no inconsistencies anywhere in my hypothesis .

Well, as Easter Lily points out, from an historical point of view that's not possible! All you have to do is read Shakespeare to see how different English was only 500 years ago.

I thought it was an excellent storyline that the Abydonians spoke Ancient Egyptian (which, incidentally, still survives as a language in the Coptic Church of Egypt). The Red October device is also a good one, as it tells the audience "yes, they are speaking <insert language here> but for our benefit we're hearing it in English".

That said, a better one was the BBC comedy series "Allo Allo" set in occupied France where the characters spoke in accents to tell which language they were speaking!!!!!

[Easter Lily]

That said, a better one was the BBC comedy series "Allo Allo" set in occupied France where the characters spoke in accents to tell which language they were speaking!!!!!

I loved "Allo, Allo"... it's interesting that I was just talking to my husband about that last night!
Didn't you love that English man was trying to speak French and always startled everyone with his "Good Moaning"... what a cack!

"Now we return to our regular transmission of Stargate Atlantis..."

Occasionally it is good for us to hear the different alien languages as that signifies much more vividly the cultural and linguistic gaps. It gives that immediate sense of "otherness" better than other narrative device.

[DarkQuee1]

Okay. Well most of the people we meet are of western origin right? Well old languages evolved into English. So maybe people from the gate went throough the same process and ended with an english like language. Which is pretty easy to learn and stuff. Hows that?

Not in Atlantis. Those people there are *not* from Earth at all, and those planets were "seeded" (and we still don't know what they mean by that) long before English was a gleam in the mind of someone running around coverd in woad.

I *might* buy (with a huge sigh and a lot of head-shaking) that the Ancients put something into the gate that acts like a universal translator and affects anyone using it--just to have an internal explanation (rather than the external one of: we don't want to spend episode after episode of someone translating everything, or using hand gestures and grunts). After all, any "sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic."


J.

[Zamboni]

Dunno if you guys solved the problem or not (yeah like I'm gonna read four pages of text), but here's one solution of mine:

The Goa'uld controls (or used to) most of the planets that SG1 visits. To maintain control they must communicate. The language that is spoken in SG1 then, is not actually English, but a variant of ancient Egyptian used in the original movie. We just hear English because the producers are nice enough to translate them (yeah that must be it).

All SG members must learn this language before graduating (or be assigned a team, whatever). The Goa'uld themselves, speak their own tongue of... Goa'uld... To the Jaffa and other system lords and whatnot, so as to NOT reveal any important information to lowly villagers.

That or maybe they put the entire "Sesame Street" archive on MALPs and plays it once it's through the gate. LOL

[Simpsons did it!]

This is possibly the stupidest thread I've read here. Why do the aliens speak english? If you even have to ask such a ridiculous question, you don't deserve to watch the show.

[ShadowMaat]

This is possibly the stupidest thread I've read here. Why do the aliens speak english? If you even have to ask such a ridiculous question, you don't deserve to watch the show.

It's a moot question and there's probably not much point in asking it, but it isn't any dumber than half the other threads I've seen here. There have been some interesting things said, regardless, and I doubt that YOU are in a position to pass judgement on anyone, nevermind decree who does and doesn't "deserve" to watch the show.

Either keep in the spirit of the thread or take your insults and leave.

[Zamboni]

No comment on my theory? Come on! It took me like five minutes to type it... (Alright, maybe one minute but still...) Give me some of your thoughts... Else I will keep bumping this thread for no reason.

This is possibly the stupidest thread I've read here. Why do the aliens speak english? If you even have to ask such a ridiculous question, you don't deserve to watch the show.

Well not so much that they speak English, but rather the majority of them speak the same language... I assume when this show airs in say, Germany, RDA would speak German (well not him personally, but the dubbing guy will) and Chinese in China and so on and so forth... Well maybe not China, they just put subtitles on everything.

[cobraR478]

This is my idea regarding the aliens speaking english problem:
I think that English was the language spoken by the Four Races, a common language which allowed those races to communicate each other. The Goa'uld copied this language also, which would explain why they can speak English, as well as their Jaffa and Human slaves. The Ancients may have also given the language to the Humans of Earth, and this language was changed over the course of millenia (for example, the basic sounds for 'mother/mum/ma' and 'father/pa' exist in over 90%, I believe, of the world's languages, so just a little fact there), and luckily, our spoken English is very similar to the original common spoken dialect of the Four Races. Maybe there was no common writing between the races, except the writing found on Ernest's planet, but the writing may not have been passed down. The reason the Abydonians did not speak English was because Ra seemed to speak mainly in Egyptian/Goa'uld language, and therefore they would not have no use for English.
My explanation seems to fit the Stargate Universe, and does not rely on a Universal Translator that has not been shown anywhere on the show, I just hope there are no inconsistencies anywhere in my hypothesis .

The Nox couldn't speak English until they learned it.(albiet rather quickly)

[DATR]

Haven't you read the stargate specifications manual? It's quite simple.

You see, each time a corralative update occurs the gate assigned to a planet would assign itself a language depending on the most spoken language on the planet by a species of sufficent intelligence and evolution.

When matter is transportd through the stargate if it is detected to be a inteligent lifeform it's brain is altered to understand and speak the language without it noticing (and the same thing happens when it's sent back).

Some times it doesn't work, i.e. the gate didn't detect the unas, it couldn't find the nox because of the cloaking technology, it dind't work in the movie because the language had changed since the last corralative update.

This idea has holes though, like why the gate would give you the English language back when technically it shouldn't have updated to use English yet. Also how could radio transmissions be understood?

Meh... at lest it's something...

[Zamboni]

Did everyone just skip my post or something? What about my theory? That all Goa'uld controlled planets speak a variant of Ancient Egyptian and all SG teams go through a training program that teaches them that dialect?

This theory makes perfect sense as Jaffa speak both language: AE to slaves and Goa'uld to other Jaffa and their masters.