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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [QB] If we assume that universal translators are in some sort of an "idle mode" when a discussion is being held mainly in English, then lots of things are explained: -Klingons can "surprise" the sleeping UT with a couple of native words -Picard can curse in French (French is a "foreign language" to the E-D computer, as per "11001001") -Sisko can chant in Bajoran Why would the UT have an "idle mode"? Perhaps this is an artifact of the necessity of leaving proper names (like Son'a or Bajor, which might actually have literal translations, like "Earth" might translate to "dirt") and culture-specific concepts (like Gul, which apparently doesn't correspond exactly to Captain) untranslated. The UT errs on the side of caution when it notices that a speaker suddenly switches languages. Examples of "errors" resulting from this: Picard and Worf are speaking English and suddenly Worf curses in Klingonese, so we hear a Klingon curse in the middle of English. Or then Sisko speaks English and Kira Bajoran, and suddenly Sisko recites a Bajoran poem in Bajoran, so we hear a bit of Bajoran in the middle of English. Of course, it doesn't explain why "non-sudden" bouts of Klingonese don't get translated better. But non-sudden cases are relatively few: we usually hear a lot of Klingonese only when *everybody* present is speaking that language, so we may assume that our very own UT has simply decided to translate to that language to please the vocal majority. In any case, the "idle mode" theory would allow for everybody to speak their native language and not English - for example, Bashir might mainly speak Arabic or Farsi or something. If the majority speaks English nevertheless, all the better... Timo Saloniemi [/QB][/QUOTE]
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