Six Science Fiction Stories That Include Difficult Alien Languages

Bizarrely Connected Stories: In which I find a strange theme connecting several short stories that I have reviewed in the past. Today’s feature: Six Science Fiction Stories That Include Difficult Alien Languages!

I like to consider myself an amateur linguist. I have made serious attempts at learning five foreign languages: Spanish, Chamorro, Pohnpeian, Japanese and Arabic. Whew! I think that is pretty good… for an American anyway. So when I see or read science fiction stories about humans easily communicating with aliens on first contact (Star Trek, anyone?) I always roll my eyes. On the other hand, I absolutely love it when humans find out how difficult it is to communicate with alien races – something that I think is probably much more likely to occur. Anyway, here are 6 great science fiction short stories about difficult alien languages:

• Tk’tk’tk by David D. Levine – a salesman on a strange world discovers a spiritual restaurant.
• From Babel’s Fallen Glory We Fled by Michael Swanwick – a human and a millipede-like alien flee the destruction of a magnificent city.
• All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis – a newspaper columnist investigates the glaring aliens that have landed in Denver.
• Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper – some of the first scientists to Mars search for the key to understanding the Martian language.
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny – a gifted linguist is the first human allowed to read sacred Martian texts.
• Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang – an American linguist learns the written language “Heptapod B” and discovers some amazing side effects.

If you know of any other stories about difficult alien languages please enlighten us! Thanks.

If you liked this article be sure to check out my other posts about Bizarrely Connected Stories.

Subscribe to BestScienceFictionStories.com