"The Best Science Fiction Books with Alien Languages" by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/the-best-science-fiction-books-with-alien-languages/

I have read "The Nine Billion Names Of God" (sent a shiver down my
back), "Startide Rising", and the wonderful "Project Hail Mary".

I have "Fuzzy Nation" in my SBR (strategic book reserve). "Little
Fuzzy" was the original of this book which I have read a couple of times.

How about “Contact with Chaos (Freehold Series)” by Michael Z. Williamson ?
https://www.amazon.com/Contact-Chaos-Freehold-Michael-Williamson/dp/1439133735/

Of course there is the excellent Perry Rhodan series where the majority
of the Milky Way speaks Arkonide and Earth is transitioning to Esperanto.
https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Stardust-Perry-Rhodan-Scheer/dp/B0007I83EU/

And David Weber's Mutineer's Moon has the Fourth and Fifth Imperiums
speaking Imperial.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856

Lynn

On Monday, February 13, 2023 at 7:15:05 PM UTC-7, Lynn McGuire wrote:

> Of course there is the excellent Perry Rhodan series where the majority
> of the Milky Way speaks Arkonide and Earth is transitioning to Esperanto.
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Stardust-Perry-Rhodan-Scheer/dp/B0007I83EU/

I remember that there was one science-fiction author who, in a number of
his works, featured Esperanto prominently as a language that was used in
the future.

Ah... Harry Harrison, author of "The Ethical Engineer", which is where I remember
it from.

John Savard

Quadibloc wrote:

>On Monday, February 13, 2023 at 7:15:05 PM UTC-7, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>
>> Of course there is the excellent Perry Rhodan series where the
>>majority of the Milky Way speaks Arkonide and Earth is
>>transitioning to Esperanto.
>>
>>https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Stardust-Perry-Rhodan-Scheer/dp/B0007I83EU/
>
>I remember that there was one science-fiction author who, in a number
>of his works, featured Esperanto prominently as a language that was
>used in the future.
>
>Ah... Harry Harrison, author of "The Ethical Engineer", which is
>where I remember it from.

The Stainless Steel Rat books featured Esperanto as the common
language. When Jim takes a time travel trip to Earth (or is that
"Dirt") he has to deal with not know the language.

Brian

On 2023-02-14, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

> "The Best Science Fiction Books with Alien Languages" by Dan Livingston

I detect some false advertising here. None of the three I've read deal
with alien languages:
* "The Nine Billion Names of God": A computer enumerates names.
* _Startide Rising_: Was there anything language-related in there?
* _Głos Pana_ (His Master’s Voice): It's not even clear whether the
signal was produced by intelligent aliens, much less that it is
a message, never mind language.

> Of course there is the excellent Perry Rhodan series where the majority
> of the Milky Way speaks Arkonide

The lingua franca of the Arkonide empire is Interkosmo. I admit
I'm hazy whether that is a form of Arkonide.

> and Earth is transitioning to Esperanto.

Whut?!? If anything like that ever was ever mentioned in a throw-away
comment, it didn't stick. "Terran", the lingua franca of Earth,
is evidently English.

And of course there is magic universal translator technology that,
when confronted with alien speech, will pull perfect translations
out of air of varying degrees of thinness, as plot and authorial
laziness require.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

In article <slrntunsii.24rl.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de>,
Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
>
>And of course there is magic universal translator technology that,
>when confronted with alien speech, will pull perfect translations
>out of air of varying degrees of thinness, as plot and authorial
>laziness require.

The book I review next Friday has universal translators that
not only deliver idiomatically perfect English, they censor
out age-inappropriate obscenities according to local custom.
The protag is puzzled why this girl she just met keeps sprinkling
"bleep" through her speech.

--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 8:30:09 AM UTC+11, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2023-02-14, Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > "The Best Science Fiction Books with Alien Languages" by Dan Livingston
>
> I detect some false advertising here. None of the three I've read deal
> with alien languages:
> * "The Nine Billion Names of God": A computer enumerates names.
> * _Startide Rising_: Was there anything language-related in there?

Yes. The aliens, all being alien to each other, require translators to communicate. One of the more memorable lines is towards the end as the pesky humans are escaping, with the Soro in hot pursuit:

"On her screen, the man continued to taunt them.

'Librarian' she called. 'I do not understand some of the man's words. Find out what that phrase - Nyaahh nyaahh - means in their beastly wolfling tongue!'"

-Moriarty

On Monday, February 13, 2023 at 9:15:05 PM UTC-5, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> "The Best Science Fiction Books with Alien Languages" by Dan Livingston
>
> https://best-sci-fi-books.com/the-best-science-fiction-books-with-alien-languages/
>
> I have read "The Nine Billion Names Of God" (sent a shiver down my
> back), "Startide Rising", and the wonderful "Project Hail Mary".
>
> I have "Fuzzy Nation" in my SBR (strategic book reserve). "Little
> Fuzzy" was the original of this book which I have read a couple of times.
>
> How about “Contact with Chaos (Freehold Series)” by Michael Z. Williamson ?
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Contact-Chaos-Freehold-Michael-Williamson/dp/1439133735/
>
>
> Of course there is the excellent Perry Rhodan series where the majority
> of the Milky Way speaks Arkonide and Earth is transitioning to Esperanto.
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Stardust-Perry-Rhodan-Scheer/dp/B0007I83EU/
>
> And David Weber's Mutineer's Moon has the Fourth and Fifth Imperiums
> speaking Imperial.
> https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856

In one of Gordon Dickson's novels - it might have been "The Alien Way" - humans have to contend
with aliens who do not have the concept of "right" as in "right or wrong". As their civilization
does not have any more crime than ours, they must have some equivalent and the humans need
to figure out what that is.

The aliens, IIRC, can speak a human language, but some of the words have no meaning for
them.

I wasn't too happy with Dickson's solution but his were among the first aliens in
my reading which seemed truly alien, and not New Yorkers with tentacles or
inscrutable mysteries.

In Schroeder's "Permanence" one group of photosynthesizing aliens won't speak to
plant-eating humans at all. We communicate with them through a group of humans
who have renounced plant (and presumably animal) based food.

William Hyde

James Nicoll wrote:

>The book I review next Friday has universal translators that
>not only deliver idiomatically perfect English, they censor
>out age-inappropriate obscenities according to local custom.
>The protag is puzzled why this girl she just met keeps sprinkling
>"bleep" through her speech.

Like "The Good Place". "Why the fork can't I say 'fork?'"

Brian