Terrestrial n. 2

‘Kalis methra,’ he began haltingly, ‘seltin guna getal.’ ‘Yes, there is air here,’ said the Martian leader, startlingly. ‘Not enough for your use, however, so do not open your helmets.’ Syme swore amazedly. ‘I thought you said they didn’t speak Terrestrial,’ Tate said. Syme ignored him. ‘We had our reasons for not doing so,’ the Martian said.

The rest of his life, or as the Zan had quaintly expressed it, for-ev-er…. The Zan had learned to speak Terrestrial English in a matter of hours but they persisted in separating syllables.

Mentally, for a moment of wry amusement, Skorrogan rendered a few lines into Terrestrial [...] It didn’t work. It wasn’t only that the metallic rhythm and hard barking syllables were lost, the intricate rhyme and alliteration, though that was part of it—but it just didn’t make sense in Terrestrial. The concepts were lacking. How could you render, well, such a word as vorkansraavin as faring and hope to get more than a mutilated fragment of meaning? Psychologies were simply too different.

Charlie’s words were being translated into the native language, of course, but Bronoski’s collars and mine switched them back into Terrestrial.

‘I zuppose it was de, you zay, contrazt.’ He spoke Terrestrial Anglic with a thick accent.

Take a note. Translate it into terrestrial, get it up into Transmissions as soon as possible, see it is circulated to all native contractors concerned.

‘You should have known better than to tackle that fierce-looking creature,’ Zubb said, pointing his beak at Magnan. ‘How does it happen that you speak Terrestrial?’ Retief asked. ‘Oh, one picks up all sorts of dialects.’ ‘It’s quite charming, really,’ Magnan said. ‘Such a quaint, archaic accent.’

‘Can I help you?’ he asked in a Terrestrial accent that sounded vaguely familiar. Maybe one of the African countries. It sounded warm and full of sunshine, the antithesis of the flat, cool diction of Mars.