Earthish n.

If she answered the silly questions right out loud, that was all right too, because they couldn’t understand her anyhow. How would they know Earthish?

When I say ‘yag loogt’ -n’balt’ what does it mean to you in Earthish?

Sahaa the alien looked on politely. Although he could speak Earthish and understand it, much of what was said was well below his own sonic range.

‘No Jovian?’ ‘Well, child…is there any such language as Terran? Or Earthish?’ ‘I suppose not. No, of course there isn’t.’ ‘Well, if our globe requires five thousand languages or more, why should Jupiter have only one?’

The translation machine—that wonderful gadget that conveniently turns the gobbledegook spoken by alien life-forms into nice comprehensible Earthish, and vice versa—has been a staple concept of science fiction for decades.

She grinned, showing good teeth, and said something in a liquid dialect that Stillich’s systems began to translate for him. He waved that away. ‘Speak Earthish,’ he snapped.