Day 124: Lieutenant T'var made a note on her personal tricorder that the syntax of the Cladonian language was one of the most complex she had encountered during her tour of duty aboard the Chomsky. An expert in xenolinguistics, she had made one significant breakthrough to advance her analysis: the Cladonians were a symbiotic species, and subtle intonations from the secondary component, barely perceptible even to her keen Vulcan ears, had the ability to change a positive statement to a negative. That one fact had culminated in a number of substantial misunderstandings following a peaceful first contact, and relations with the ship's crew had become strained over the next few months despite the Cladonians' gentle nature. A colleague had remarked that the Cladonians were "inclined to listen, but too closely," often reading hidden meanings into a phrase voiced by a human with a stuffy nose or a raspy throat. However, with T'var's insight into the nuances of the native language, a foundation for communication had been laid even though consistent translation was proving difficult to achieve.
No comments:
Post a Comment