"Universe"-al Grammar, alpha-quadrant style

Despite the suddenly-full-schedule that is the beginning of the semester, I've been finding some time to indulge my unholy love of all things Star Trek. The spinoff I've been watching the most of lately is Enterprise which, despite some obvious flaws, has a reasonably interesting exo-linguist as a major character.

I'm most of the way through Season 1, and I've yet to see anything really interesting done with language. Mostly it's just Hoshi mumbling about syntax and verbs and pushing buttons on her tricorder. But I've been pleasantly surprised by the lack of groan-worthy linguistic fuckups -- nothing even closely resembling the "Ferengi have 178 words for rain" or "Klingons had no word for surrender until they met Kirk" nonsense that occasionally shows up in the other shows. So good for them.

I would really like to see some kind of science fiction that deals with a language not subject to universal grammar. I suppose one could suggest that the linguistic similarities among humanoids might be an indicator of some kind of fundamental personal similarity, but it's just not interesting. Sure, Klingon is a fun language to yell things in, but I'm saving myself for the alien language that requires codas and forbids onsets.

arrr!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!