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The universal translator is a fictional device common to many science fiction works. Its purpose is to offer an instant translation of any language. Like hyperdrive, a universal translator is a somewhat improbable technology that is an accepted convention in science fiction stories and serves as a useful plot device. As a convention, it is used to remove the problem of translating between alien languages, unless that problem is essential to the plot. To do this in every episode when a new species or culture is encountered would consume time (especially when most of these shows have a half to one hour format) normally allotted for plot development and would potentially, across many episodes, become repetitive to the point of annoyance.

Similar real-world technologies are currently far from performing as well as their fictional counterparts, although scientists continue to seek advances.[1] See machine translation and speech recognition for discussions of real-world natural language processing technologies.

Contents 1 General 2 Depictions 2.1 Star Control 2.2 Stargate 2.3 Star Trek 2.4 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 2.5 Star Wars 2.6 Futurama 2.7 Farscape 2.8 Unreal 2.9 Doctor Who 2.10 The Last Starfighter 2.11 Non-device translators 3 External links

As a rule, a universal translator is instantaneous, but if that language has never been recorded, there is sometimes a time delay until the translator can properly work out a translation, as in the case of Star Trek. Some writers seek greater plausibility by instead having computer translation that requires collecting a database of the new language, often by listening to radio transmissions. Usually it ignores any grammar rules between languages, giving it as perfect English.

The existence of a universal translator is sometimes problematic in film and television productions from a logical perspective (for example, aliens who still speak English when no universal translator is in evidence and all characters appear to hear the appropriately translated speech instead of the original speech), and requires some suspension of disbelief when characters' mouths move in sync with the translated words and not the original language; nonetheless, it removes the need for cumbersome and potentially extensive subtitles, and it eliminates the rather unlikely supposition that every other race in the galaxy has gone to the trouble of learning English.

In the Star Control computer game series, almost all races are implied to have universal translators; however, discrepancies between the ways aliens choose to translate themselves sometimes crop up and complicate communications. The VUX, for instance, are cited as having uniquely advanced skills in linguistics and are able to translate human language long before humans are capable of doing the same to the VUX. This created a problem during the first contact between Vux and humans, in a starship commanded by Captain Rand. According to Star Control: Great Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict, Captain Rand is referred to as saying "That is one ugly sucker" when the image of a VUX first came onto his viewscreen. However, in Star Control II, Captain Rand is referred to as saying "That is the ugliest freak-face I've ever seen" to his first officer, along with joking that the VUX name stands for Very Ugly Xenoform. It is debatable which source is canon. Whichever the remark, it is implied that the VUX's advanced Universal Translator technologies conveyed the exact meaning of Captain Rand's words. The effete VUX used the insult as an excuse for hostility toward humans.

Also, a new race called the Orz was introduced in Star Control II. They presumably come from another dimension, and at first contact, the ship's computer says that there are many vocal anomalies in their language resulting from their referring to concepts or phenomena for which there are no equivalents in human language. The result is dialogue that is a patchwork of ordinary words and phrases marked with *asterisk pairs* indicating that they are very loose translations of unique Orz concepts into human language, a full translation of which would probably require paragraph-long definitions. (For instance, the Orz refer to the human dimension as *heavy space* and their own as *Pretty Space*, to various categories of races as *happy campers* or *silly cows*, and so on.)

In the other direction, the Supox are a race portrayed as attempting to mimic as many aspects of other races' language and culture as possible when speaking to them, to the point of referring to their own planet as “Earth,” also leading to confusion.

In Star Control III, the K’tang are portrayed as an intellectually inferior species using advanced technology they do not fully understand in order to intimidate people, perhaps explaining why their translators’ output is littered with misspellings and nonstandard usages of words, like threatening to “crushify” the player. Along the same lines, the Daktaklakpak dialogue is highly stilted and contains many numbers and mathematical expressions, implying that, as a mechanical race, their thought processes are inherently too different from humans’ to be directly translated into human language.

In the television shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, there are no personal translation devices used, and most alien and Human cultures on other planets speak English. The makers of the show have themselves admitted this on the main SG-1 site, stating that this is to save spending ten minutes an episode on characters learning a new language (early episodes of SG-1 revealed the difficulties of attempting to write such processes into the plot). In the season 8 finale of SG-1, “Moebius (Part II),” the characters go back in time to 3000 B.C. and one of them teaches English to the people there. Fans have speculated that the language could have been secretly adopted then and carried on from planet to planet, leading to today’s situation in which most planets speak English, in spite of the evident lack of scientific credibility in this theory, especially considering almost every alien race encountered speaks nearly perfect, modern English, when a language would almost certainly change beyond recognition in that length of time.

A notable exception to this rule are the Goa’uld, who occasionally speak their own language amongst themselves or when giving orders to their Jaffa. This is never subtitled, but occasionally a translation is given by a third character (usually Teal’c or Daniel Jackson), obstensively for the benefit of the human characters nearby who do not speak Goa’uld. The Asgard are also shown having their own “language” (apparently related to the Norse languages), although it is in fact English played backwards. (see Hermiod).

Given that the Asgard and the Ancients were existent in the same 'Alliance of Four Great Races', it is possible that English was used as the universal language mentioned in "The Torment of Tantalus". Considering also that both races play or played a pivotal role in the interplanetary relations of several galaxies, as well as dealings with the Goa'uld, this could be the explanation of the existence of English as a semi-universal language. This would mean that, instead of other planets speaking Earth-developed English, Earth is in actuality speaking Alien-developed English, and as the Asgard and Goa'uld are cited as the source of a number of other Earth languages, would seem to be the case.

In Star Trek, the Universal Translator was used by Ensign Hoshi Sato, the communications officer on the Enterprise in Star Trek: Enterprise, to invent the linguacode matrix in her late 30s. It was supposedly first used in the late 21st century on Earth for the instant translation of well-known Earth languages. Gradually, with the removal of language barriers, Earth’s disparate cultures came to terms of universal peace. Translations of previously unknown languages, such as those of aliens, required more difficulties to be overcome. Like most other common forms of Star Trek technology (warp drive, transporters, etc.), the Universal Translator was probably developed independently on several worlds as an inevitable requirement of space travel; certainly the Vulcans had no difficulty communicating with humans upon making “first contact” (although the Vulcans could have learned English from monitoring Earth radio transmissions).

Improbably, the universal translator has been successfully used to interpret non-biological lifeform communication (in the Original Series episode “Metamorphosis”). In the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episode “The Ensigns of Command,” the translator proved ineffective with the language of the Sheliak species, so the Federation had to depend on the aliens’ interpretation of Earth languages. It is speculated that the Sheliak communicate amongst themselves in extremely complex legalese. The TNG episode “Darmok” also illustrates another instance where the universal translator proves ineffective and unintelligible, because the Tamarian language is too deeply rooted in local metaphor.

Unlike virtually every other form of Federation technology, Universal Translators almost never break down. Phasers can be rendered inert, communicators blocked, shields broken through, warp cores breached, but through it all, Universal Translators make certain that everyone knows what is going on. Although they were clearly in widespread use during Captain Kirk’s time (inasmuch as the crew regularly communicated with species who could not conceivably have knowledge of English), it is unclear where they were carried on personnel of that era. The episode “Metamorphosis” was the only time in which the device was actually seen. At this time they are also apparently less perfect in their translations into Klingon. Chekov said that they must respond personally, as the Klingons would recognize the translator. In the sixth Star Trek film, the characters are seen relying on books (print books, no less) in order to communicate with a Klingon military ship. Actress Nichelle Nichols reportedly protested this scene, as she felt that Uhura, as communications officer, would be fluent in Klingon.

By the 24th century, Universal Translators are built into the communicator pins worn by Starfleet personnel, although, since crew members (such as Riker in the Next Generation episode “First Contact”) have spoken to newly encountered aliens even when deprived of their communicators, some other factor must also be at work.

In some episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, we see a Cardassian universal translator at work. It takes some time to process an alien language, whose speakers are initially not understandable but as they continue speaking, the computer gradually learns their language and renders it into English (also known as Federation Standard).

Ferengi customarily wear their Universal Translators as an implant in their ears. In The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) episode “Little Green Men,” the humans without translators are able to understand the Ferengi once the Ferengi get their own translators working. This means it doesn’t just translate what the wearer is hearing, but also what they are saying. How it knows what to translate it into is never explained.

See Babel Fish (website)

The Star Wars films feature a situation where there is a galaxywide lingua franca, Galactic Basic, which sounds remarkably like English (although the written form, Aurebesh, is distinctly different); it is unsure if the language is supposed to sound exactly like English, or if it is supposed to be “translated” into English. Unlike, for instance, the Stargate universe, the different species are shown to have their own languages (for instance, Huttese), which are “translated” for the viewer by means of subtitles, or a third character acting as an interpreter. The idea of a common language being spread throughout the galaxy is consistent with the Star Wars universe’s concept of a galaxywide unified government (the Old Republic) having existed for millennia.

Almost everybody in the Futurama universe speaks English, with no explanation being given. A Universal Translator does exist, created by Professor Farnsworth, but while it can translate any language, it can only translate them into French (which, by the year 3000, is a dead language; in the French version of Futurama, the dead language is German).

• Farnsworth: And this is my universal translator. Unfortunately so far it only translates into an incomprehensible dead language.
• Cubert: Hello.
• Universal Translator: Bonjour!
• Farnsworth: Crazy gibberish!

On the TV show Farscape John Chrichton is implanted with a conceivable biological bacteria or nanoimplants, called translator microbes, into his bloodstream through an injection which functions as a Universal Translator. The aliens that implant him are puzzled at why, "...he wasn't injected at birth". The microbes find their way to the base of the brain and learn the language and makes the user understand everything said to him. This does not enable the injected person to speak other languages, they continue to speak in their own language and are merely understood by others as long as they possess the microbes. The microbes sometimes fail to translate slang and are unable to translate the natural language of the alien Pilots because their brains are capable of multitasking thought process and every word they say in their language has too much meaning to be translated. The implanted can learn to speak new languages if they want or to make communicating with non-injected individuals possible. The crew of Moya learned English from their human friend John Crichton, later visited Earth and were able to communicate with the non-implanted populace. Some species such as the Kalish cannot take translator microbes because their body rejects them so they must learn a new language the hard way.

A Universal Translator machine sucks really bad

can be found in the game Unreal as a usable item. It is used to read mostly Nali and Skaarj inscriptions from books, screens etc.

Using a telepathic field, the TARDIS automatically translates all comprehensible languages into a language understood by the listener/reader. It has featured as a main part of the show many times. The translator is “linked” to the Doctor, just like nearly every piece of equipment on the TARDIS, and sometimes doesn’t function if the Doctor is incapacitated.

Alex Rogan was taken to the Starfighter Command on Rylos, where he was later given a chip that was attached to the collar part of his shirt, so Alex could hear English from the Rylos race and other alien races.

Most of the time, the universal translator is depicted as a machine that works with a communications monitor. An exception is the Babel fish from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a small organism that fits in the user’s ear. (The Babel fish itself is a parody of the universal translator convention.)

Another exception is the “translator microbes” from the Farscape series, which were probably inspired by the Babel fish.

In K. A. Applegate’s famous science fiction series, Animorphs, all Andalite warriors have miniature translator chips in their brains, which enable them to readily understand any alien language. This is mentioned in The Hork-Bajir Chronicles and The Andalite Chronicles. However, in the series most aliens possess “thought-speak,” a type of telepathic communication, which operates more on the essence of thoughts than the words themselves; thus, an alien can thought-speak in their own language, but everyone hears it as their own. When morphed into a non-thought-speaking creature, such as a human, aliens seem to gain the ability to speak English, possibly due to a translator.

In the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Link learns to talk to the inch-high Minish race by eating a Jabber Nut acquired in the Minish village. Minish seems to be the only language that Jabber Nuts enable the user to speak, as otherwise the Minish would eat the nuts themselves and learn to speak English. When Link is in his Minish form, he can talk to animals such as dogs, cats, chickens, cows and horses; it is unknown whether this is an effect of the Nut or of Minish DNA.

In Isaac Asimov’s Norby series, being bitten by a Jamyan dragon enables one to speak their language.

In the DC Comics universe, the Absorbascon is a Thanagarian device used by Hawkman to learn the languages of Earth.

• Universal Translator (UT) may also refer to Ectaco series of multilingual handheld electronic dictionaries.

• Universal translator article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
• Universal Translator A Universal Translator / Visual Dictionary. It works by displaying images of the word/s that you input which in theory someone from any country should be able to understand.
• ULRTMT for Skype The Universal Real-Time Message Translator and the UCTS for Skype is about a close as we have come to doing translation with chat message text in real time. Currently they support 38 different language combinations and the UTCS also speaks as well, which allow many people using many different languages to be in the same chat using their native language and yet understand each other. Both are free.