Alien languages, i.e. languages of extraterrestrial beings, are a hypothetical subject since none have been encountered so far. The research in these hypothetical languages is variously called exolinguistics, xenolinguistics or

astrolinguistics Astrolinguistics is a field of linguistics connected with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Early Soviet experiments Arguably the first attempt to construct a language for interplanetary communication was the ''AO'' languag ...

. The question of what form alien languages might take and the possibility for humans to recognize and translate them has been part of the linguistics and language studies courses, e.g., at the Bowling Green State University (2001).Course notes
by assistant professo
Sheri Wells-Jensen
, Bowling Green State University (retrieved June 19, 2017) Noam Chomsky (1983), starting with his hypothesis of a genetically-predetermined universal grammar of human languages, held that it would be impossible for a human to naturally learn an alien language because it would most probably violate the universal grammar inborn in humans. Humans would have to study an alien language by the slow way of discovery, the same way as scientists do research in, say, physics. Linguist

Keren Rice Keren Rice (born 1949) is a Canadian linguist. She is a professor of linguistics and serves as the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives at the University of Toronto. Education and career Rice earned her PhD in 1976 from the Univ ...

posits that basic communication between humans and aliens should be possible, unless "the things that we think are common to languages—situating in time ndspace, talking about participants, etc.—are so radically different that the human language provides no starting point for it."

Jessica Coon Jessica Coon is a professor of linguistics at McGill University and Canada Research Chair in syntax and indigenous languages. She was the linguistics expert consultant for the 2016 film ''Arrival''. Coon works on ergativity, split ergativi ...

, a professor of linguistics at McGill University, was consulted for the linguistic aspect of the 2016 film '' Arrival''. While acknowledging that the graphical language in the film was art without linguistic meaning, she stated that the film was a fairly accurate portrayal of the approach human linguists would use in trying to understand an alien language.

Solomon W. Golomb Solomon Wolf Golomb (; May 30, 1932 – May 1, 2016) was an American mathematician, engineer, and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California, best known for his works on mathematical games. Most notably, he inve ...

posited that in order to gain the ability to build radio transmitters or other devices capable of interstellar communication, or any other technology beyond the most rudimentary tools, knowledge must be accumulated over the course of many generations. Golomb further reasoned that since this requires that those who have learned knowledge from others can keep passing it on even after those who originally created the knowledge are dead, any beings capable of building civilizations must have an innate understanding that information retains its meaning no matter who utters it, and not block information out based on the generation of the messenger or deeming the same words acceptable or unacceptable depending on who utters them. It was held by Golomb that this ability, by being a necessary condition for accumulating information into culture in the first place, must be innate as something that is needed to form culture from the beginning cannot be an effect of culture. Golomb argued that this would create a common linguistic ground assisting humans with this ability in learning extraterrestrial languages.Solomon W. Golomb (1968). "Extraterrestrial Linguistics"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alien Language

See also

References