ASTRA MILITARUM - Warfare in the Future: A Linguistic Perspective.

[MarhtaPoula]

In the distant future of Astra Militarum, how have communication systems evolved to adapt to diverse languages, considering the inclusion of languages like Hindi from India? Is there a universal language in use, or have translation technologies become advanced enough to allow for seamless communication?

[Focslain]

IIRC Hindi does not exist in the realm of 30k/40k. Humanity has two base languages, low and high Gothic with the adMech having binary as their own personal language. 

 

There are local slang and local phrases, but in the setting humanity overall has a universal language. 

[kabaakaba]

it's not wholly correct. there is dialects of low gothic all over the Imperium. They evolved alot and sometimes you just can't understand it, but according to lore IIRC all that dialects derivied from english(low gothic). Every body MUST know common low gothic. Hight gothic which is latin is a goverment and ministorum langueage

[Wormwoods]

You're all gonna get tired of me typing this, but: a Galaxy is a big place, and 40,000 years is a long time. An empire of trillions can have a standard language, a fancy language, and whatever else it wants, but they haven't even re-contacted all the planets of the human diaspora by the time of the current setting. Not everyone can speak Gothic, but not everyone was even given the chance. The books are full of examples of planets having their own languages, either in addition to Gothic variants or instead of, with only those people who deal with the wider Imperium learning more than the basics. 

 

So the actual answer is: there are people speaking Hindi in that mix if you want them to be. There's space for it, or a language that evolved from it over time somewhere. Because a Galaxy is a big place, and 40,00 years is a long time.

 

Translation is a different kettle of fish. Technology is weird in 40K, and deeply inconsistent planet to planet (see above point), so while I'm sure high-quality translation tech exists, in most cases it probably just falls to people to learn a second language, like Low Gothic, to deal with people from other worlds. It's the Lingua Franca, right? Maybe it isn't everyone's first language, but it'll be common enough that any regiment is bound to have some speakers, even if it's just the officers. After all, how are they getting their orders? Someone is speaking to them from the Imperium.

 

 

[N1SB]

13 hours ago, MarhtaPoula said:

In the distant future of Astra Militarum, how have communication systems evolved to adapt to diverse languages, considering the inclusion of languages like Hindi from India? Is there a universal language in use, or have translation technologies become advanced enough to allow for seamless communication?

 

 

+++ Hindi is already included in English, ergo Low Gothic +++

 

 

Hindi ABSOLUTELY has ALREADY been (partially) incorporated into 40k Low Gothic canonically, in-lore, officially.  As pointed out, High Gothic is like 40k's on & off Latin, used for official purposes.  Low Gothic is supposed to be kinda like English, remembering that Shakespeare is 400+ years ago, so imagine the difference between our English vs. Shakespeare's but multiply that by about 100...that's what it should be like.  It's not, like we still read Black Library novels without needing a Low Gothic teacher, but y'know.

 

But think of all the words we use NOW in 40k that come from Hindi, because they are ALREADY in English:

 

• Bandana, like what Catachan and other Regiments wear, from bandhna, meaning to tie
• Jungle, like where Catachans grew up, from jangal, meaning jungle
• Chit, like chits from the Imperial bureaucracy to do anything, from chitthi, meaning paperwork
• Khaki, like the colour of Cadian pants, from khaki, meaning khaki
• Loot, like Ork Lootas, from loot, meaning to loot
• Shampoo, because hygiene is important to both Guardsmen and Warhammer players, from champoo, meaning to rub, like rubbing shampoo into your hair
• Thug, like Necromundan Hired Thugs, from thug, which was from like a type of robber (there's an interesting origin to that where these robbers for some religious reason were forbidden to draw blood, so they'd strangle people to death, I'm not sure)
• Typhon, like the old Heresy-era tank, from toofaan, like a big storm

 

(Source: I grew up in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim city known as London, England.)

 

Those are already all words in 40k and, indeed, GW product names.  I'm not even dipping into Sanskrit where we drew the words for the Eldar Avatar and Khorne Juggernaut.

 

But Frateri et Sororitas, hear me.  All I was showing is we already so take Hindi loan words for granted that even I forgot and I honestly looked most of this up on Wikipedia.  Like I remember Thug because of the story behind it, and I was guessing Jungle and Khaki, but not Chit and Shampoo.  Did you know that?  I didn't.

 

 

+++ Sufficiently Advanced Translation Technology Indistinguishable From Magic +++

 

 

Let's give the Imperium some credit, Brothers and Sisters, it DOES have advanced translation technology.  It's called people.

 

Because any time you compare other science fiction settings to 40k and where they would have some super technology, we have people.  They have robots, we have cyborg Servitors.  They have communication devices or faster-than-light travel, we have Astropathic and Navigator psychic people.

 

Any kid who grew up in a multi-lingual environment ends up being an unofficial translator.  We ARE the translation device.

 

It really sucks.  We get shanghai'd (ha!  another loan word, see) into these arguments between some local granny and a Western tourist.  I be walking down the street to the Warhammer Store and suddenly I'm in some diplomatic spat.  We become both the translation devices and international moderators.

 

(I suspect our newest member, Marhta Poula, has had to pull similar translation duties, too.  We're in the same Translation Corp.)

 

You know how in the extremely hierarchical Astra Militarum, there are all these exceptions to the chain of command?  Like a Commissar, who often move between Regiments and worlds, can execute army commanders and Guardsmen alike, while sometimes an Ecclesiarch Priest joins a unit?  And don't forget Ratling Cooks.

 

I imagine that like being back in colonial times only 30 years (heh, only) ago for me, we DID have these British officers here in Hong Kong who could gargle Cantonese with the best of us.  We be like "screw your ancestors, this gweilo is more eloquent in our language than we are," that's how they commanded.

 

40k was written at kinda the end of this era.  40k Commissars were probably envisioned to be very much like those colonial officers.  40k Priests would've been these young British men in short sleeves and ties preaching in accented Chinese, it was hilarious.  And Chinese restaurants speak every language there is, like 40k Ratlings Cooks.

 

Btw, this was commonly understood.  The UK Prime Minister's best friend was Governor of Hong Kong.  Another political leader spoke fluent Mandarin.

 

So to imagine a 40k battle, commands from the very topic START in High Gothic, but as they work their way DOWN the chain of command, it becomes LOWER and LOWER Gothic via some Commissar, some Priest, maybe some Ratling Cook translating to the Snipers, maybe some Veteran Guardsmen relaying it to his younger comrades.

 

Is it efficient?  No...and that's the point, why you need to make a Leadership Check to make sure the vox commands are carried out.

 

This very inefficiency, imho, is the magic of 40k.  The sufficiently advanced technology is people power, and that's beautiful.

[Bonehead]

Very nicely put!

[MechaMan]

Also, as far as I’m aware, low gothic isn’t English - it’s translated into English for the out-of-universe reader, but we never actually get access to a fictional/constructed/art language like Dothraki/elvish etc. Although the setting is full of neologisms and slang (the 3rd edition, 2nd version imperial guard codex even had a glossary of terminology used by the guard) there hasn’t been much exploration of low gothic from a “linguistic perspective”.

For that we have to return to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, which I have just dug out of the depths of my shelves:

 

Author’s Note on Language

The common language of the Imperium is represented in the book by English, proper names have been rendered in an anglicized form. Many of the titles of ancient institutions and organizations are presented as Latinised English (such as the Adeptus Terra). This represents an older tongue, itself a development of twentieth Century languages, not necessarily Latin as such.

This older tongue is known in the Imperium as ‘Tech‘. being a version of the language in which technical manuals and ancient works are recorded. This language developed during the Dark Age of Technology (in fact a golden age from the point of view of science - it is only dark in the minds of the men who now fear it). It derives from the common tongue of the time, an assimilation of English, European and Pacific languages which developed over many centuries in the American/Pacific region. This was the universal medium of written record until the Age of Strife, and was spoken as a first language by many and as a second language by almost everyone. Its idioms and vocabulary now appear archaic and mystic, many of its words have acquired religious significance over the years. It is the language of the tech-priests and of forbidden books.

The common tongue of the Age of the Imperium is spoken as a first language an almost all civilized planets, and is accepted as a second language on planets within Imperial control with the exception of some medieval and feral worlds. This is a bastardised version of Tech, combining additional elements from several of the oriental languages of ancient Earth. Over the millennia it has changed greatly, and now bears almost no resemblance to the tongues from which it derived. Although a common language, it varies from planet to planet (and even from region to region), so that it is not always easy for two characters to communicate if they are from different worlds.

Medieval, feral and worlds suffering from long periods of isolation may have several indigenous languages derived either from Tech or one of the ancient Earth tongues. It was quite common during the Dark Age of Technology for worlds to be settled by small communities of ‘isolationists. These eccentric groups were often self-financed and their journeys unrecorded, many were of racial minorities attempting to recreate a sense of national identity away from the overpopulated Earth. Some of these groups made a deliberate attempt to revive long dead or moribund languages, perceiving them as a source of national identity and communal strength.

Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader (1987) pg. 267
 

It’s clear the linguistic lore isn’t fully developed/in its final form here, as “tech” seems to include Cant Mechanicus and High Gothic, which later became distinct. But this probably remains the most authoritative description of the nature of Low Gothic/the imperial lingua Franca.
 

It is also the only instance (that I’m aware of) of an authors note explaining language in the first 41st millennium, its relationship to contemporary languages, and an acknowledgement that its English rendering is merely for convenience, rather than an actual representation of the language - an explanation that metalepticly oscillates between the modalities of in and out-of-universe explanations.  

Edited May 25 by MechaMan

[N1SB]

That's what I remember it used to be, like:

 

• High Gothic: Warhammer Latin
• Low Gothic: ALL other languages in the Imperium

 

It was more like categories than an actual language, was how I thought it used to be.