Decoding ETs language - grunts, hisses, chirups, or Klingon perhaps

It seems to me that we dont have a hope in hell of ever creating a universal language translator (as in sci-fi) if we cannot translate earth mammal/bird/fish/reptile sounds.

Any ET would probably have totally different language constructs due to their biological makeup and evolution. At a fundemental level, they may have bodies based on different atoms, on silica rather than carbon as we do. They may not be as flexible as we are, or their sound-producng method or biology may vary dramatically from ours. They may have done aay with verbalising anything and just use telepathy which is more likely, given the millions of years of evolution they probably have.

So far it seems that we have taught apes to communicate with us using our choice of signs, but our interpreting their gestures and sounds is beyond us, so what hope do we have to understand the language of ET when they appear?

Even though they may well be more intelligent than us, we cannot just rely on them speaking our language because if we do, they will be able to communicate between themselves without us understanding and it would be good to be able to find out when they are plotting something not in our interest.

reply to post by qmantoo


But if there were farther advanced than us, I would imagine that we wouldnt have to translate their language. They would just use their own translator. In turn, we could then use recorded conversations between us and them to figure out their words and phrases, learning and being able to figure out what theyre saying when they think we cant understand them.

Makes me remember the translator in Mars Attacks. While the martians are running around killing everyone in sight, it keeps saying, "We come in peace! We come in peace!"

Or that the language could be " demonic or deamonic" - talked of on this thread as of late - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Like politics I assume much would get lost in the translation if we left it up to them. We could learn so much if we could understand the language of other Earth animals etc. I have no idea how you go about decyphering a language but there must be research which goes into this at some university or other.

reply to post by qmantoo

And why would you assume they need speech to communicate? Because we do?

Perhaps they would use thought and intuition and not our primitive vocalizations of sound.

Perhaps they would use thought and intuition and not our primitive vocalizations of sound.

I thought I mentioned that in the first post anyway. However they communicate we are going to need to interact with ETs somehow. If we have to learn to communicate telepathicly then thats OK too. As far as communicating with animals goes, then I can only assume that the ones that vocalize with grunts and sqeals and whistles etc cannot use telepathy.

The sounds are related to toning perhaps, and some are insectoid. Click click click. However all of them "speak" telepathically, not verbally. And they can use impression of voice, timber, individual voice, in your language. If 10 people spoke different languages it would all be in their language.

If 10 people spoke different languages it would all be in their language.

Is that because they can pick up the thoughts before they are vocalised? If so, then we need to start learning telepathy. Maybe we start with cats as some of them dont make many sounds out load?

I’m curious to read what other posters here will come up with on this topic. It’s a subject that I’ve wondered about for years.

The OP is right. How could we possibly have any hope of communicating with an alien intelligence when we don’t have even a clue as to how to go about it with other mammals on this planet? We’re total failures in this area. After all the many years we’ve been studying to try and understand the language of the dolphin, as far as I know we ‘ve made very little progress. They understand us far better than we understand them. And then there’s Koko the guerilla (I loved Koko - I felt sorry when Koko’s pet kitty got run over by a car). After many years of signing with Koko, we still only scraped the surface in a very simple and basic way. Nothing all that significant.

Understanding a significantly advanced intelligence would seem to me out of the question (currently), considering the above examples. And please, don’t say we will communicate via the universal language of mathematics. That’s nonsense. Whoever came up with that one must be the same one who came up with, “size doesn’t matter”. We “brilliant” human beings haven’t invented any universal languages; math included.

So, good question, qmantoo. I’m curious to follow this thread and see if anyone comes up with a clue. I know I don't have one...