Rigellian n. 2

the language of Rigellians

Rare.

Also Rigelian.

Language

  • 1950 ‘E. James’ Private Enterprise in Astounding Science Fiction July 71/1 page image James E. Gunn bibliography

    When you arrive on Rigel V, you will be followed until it is certain that you are not being shadowed. At that time a Rigelian will approach you, call you by name, and say: ‘Welcome to the fertile soil of Rigel V’—in Rigelian, of course. You will reply: ‘Fertility must be properly cultivated.’

  • 1956 E. F. Russell Plux X in Astounding Science Fiction June 14/1 page image Eric Frank Russell bibliography

    Fluency might prove an advantage some day. Too bad he’d never learned Rigellian, for instance.

  • [1957 R. Garrett Hungry World in Imaginative Tales Mar. 105/2 page image Randall Garrett bibliography

    There was a chattering hiss behind him. It was, Mike knew, the sibilant language of the Rigellian natives.]

  • 1996 R. Silverberg Power of Words in Asimov’s Science Fiction June 8/2 page image Robert Silverberg bibliography

    Meanwhile, we over here in the science fiction field blithely send our space explorers out to alien planets equipped with semantic converters that efficiently translate Earth-speech into Rigelian or Betelgeusean, and vice versa.

  • 1997 A. Norton & S. Smith Mind for Trade (1998) viii. 83 page image Andre Norton Sherwood Smith bibliography

    ‘No!’ Tooe’s voice was shrill. ‘No good!’ And she talked on in rapid Rigelian, mixing in what sounded to Rip like a few words of the Tathi language. Rip saw Dane frown in concentration. The cargo master’s understanding of Rigelian, after weeks of talking with Tooe, was as good as hers of Terran—or nearly. But he seldom spoke in the difficult, hissing language.

Research requirements

antedating 1950
Earliest cite

James E. Gunn, writing as "Edwin James", in Astounding

Last modified 2023-01-31 16:49:31
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.