xenolinguistics n.
the study of alien languages
Language
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1955
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Algis Budrys
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James Dalkeith, graduate in xenolinguistics, sat in his cabin and wrote a letter to his wife.
Strange Room in Fantastic Universe Jan. 60 -
1986
Sheila Finch
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CenCom decided I should study xenolinguistics because as a child I learned to speak the Amerind tongue as well as I could speak Inglis.
Triad (2012) xvi. 134 -
1988
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Sheila Finch
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As a footnote to this discussion of linguistic theories, we should make mention of the research being done in Artificial Intelligence, for what we learn from teaching a machine to use language, and recognizing if and when sentience has developed in our creation, will be vastly useful to the infant science of xenolinguistics.
Berlitz in Outer Space in Amazing Stories May 54 -
1998
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Mark Kreighbaum
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Back on the other side of the Mirror, he’d gotten some training in the theory of xenolinguistics, just in case the Bugs wanted to talk, but nothing he’d been taught made any sense at the moment.
Mirror in Time in Tad Williams’ Mirror World i. 18 -
2003
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Ruth Nestvold
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Even with all the sophisticated equipment for recording and analysis that we now possess, at some stage in deciphering an alien tongue we’re still dependent on the old point and repeat method. The human element of interaction, of trial and error, remains a necessary part of xenolinguistics.
Looking Through Lace in Asimov’s Science Fiction Sept. 28 -
2007
KIRK (CONT’D) Okay, so you’re a cadet. Studying. What’s your focus? UHURA Xenolinugistics. Lemme guess: you don’t know what that means. KIRK Let me guess: study of Alien languages: phonology, morphology, syntax.
Star Trek (film script, Yellow Revision, 5 Nov.) 32 -
2011
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‘We have no way of knowing if these sounds are speech!’…‘You are quite correct…. So I suggest we let someone who can knowledgably [sic] guess give an expert opinion. I suggest we call Arnold Chen.…. He received his doctorate in xenolinguistics.’
Fuzzy Nation (2012) 211
Research requirements
antedating 1955
Last modified 2022-02-03 15:53:27
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.