Language in the Twelve Colonies
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You have found a link that leads nowhere... deliberately.
Reasons?
The reason for this is to clean up the Special:Wantedpages, thus making our lives easier behind the scenes.
So, what links lead here?
There are too many to bother wasting our time listing. So here's a list of pages that link here. English, or some language that is universally translated into it (à la Tolkien) is standard. Loanwords from foreign languages ("fascist", "karma", etc.) occur with normal frequency, as do chronologically enigmatic borrowings such as the Battlestar Columbia. Most religious terms are explicitly shared with ancient greek beliefs (either antecedent to or descendent from them).
Vocabulary
Anachronisms
Battlestar Galactica uses many terms from modern day naval aviation, which appear somewhat anachronistic but also lend the show a flavor of realistic jargon. These include:
- Adama: You keep my planes flying. I need my planes to fly. (Litmus)
Ersatz
In contrast to its predecessor, the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica employs relatively little in the way of ersatz vocabulary. It does employ a few terms outside of a normal american english vocabulary, mostly military jargon. These are mixed in haphazardly with the real-life naval aviation terms above.
- Dradis - Radar
- Fumarella leaf - Tobacco
- Frak - A bowdlerized version of "Fuck" (c.f. "Frell" (Farscape), "Frag" (Babylon 5), "Smeg" (Red Dwarf))
- G-4 - C-4
- Krypter - Mayday
- Morpha - Morphine
- Serisone - Prednisone
- Wireless - Radio
Invented Terminology
As all science fiction shows must, Battlestar Galactica has a set of vocabulary referring to technologies and other items not shared with the real world.
- Ambrosia - a bright green alcoholic beverage
- Carom - the angle above or below the XY plane of a vessel, perpendicular to bearing (c.f. "Mark" (Star Trek))
- Chamalla - an entheogen used by priests
- Red Line
Honorifics
Although the Colonials use the honorific "Madam" (as in, Madam President), its shortened form "Ma'am" is not used in the military. All superior officers are referred to as "Sir", regardless of gender.
Accents
Most characters speak with a standard american accent, with some exceptions.
English Accent
Two characters speak with the received pronunciation, Dr. Gaius Baltar of Caprica and ship's medic Ishay. Other characters from Caprica do not share this accent.
Spanish Accent
Giana, a woman rescued from Caprica by Sharon Valerii, spoke with a Spanish or Portugese accent, and inquired after the whereabouts of her husband, who she stated was "stationed on Geminon". Her place of origin is unclear, but no other characters from either Caprica, Gemenon, or anywhere else have shared this accent.
Aerelon Accent
In the episode "Flesh and Bone", Baltar noted that Sharon Valerii spoke with a trace of an Aerelon accent. The actress who portrays her, Grace Park, speaks English with a standard american accent, but is also fluent in Korean.
Kiwi Accent
The reporter D'anna Biers speaks with a Kiwi/New Zealand accent (this is actually the accent that actress Lucy Lawless speaks with when off screen, because she is from New Zealand). However, the same episode revealed that D'anna is actually a Humano-Cylon, and another copy of D'anna on Cylon-occupied Caprica does not speak with this accent, but the standard American one. This seems to imply that D'anna's entire personality was for show, and that the Cylons seem to use more standardized pronunciation when amongst themselves ("Final Cut").