@fragmented_imagination
B Sanders

ALRB Logo - U.N. Main 6
ALRB Logo - U.N. Main 6 by @fragmented_imagination (B Sanders)

The logo of the Atlantis Language Resources Bureau.

In the early-mid 21st century, the residents of Atlantis realized that, as their population grew from having to pick up surface residents of Earth [either because someone developed a magic ability and needed to go into hiding or the activity (or antics, depending on who it was) of the Atlantis Air Fleet irreparably involved people on the surface], there came a need to start supporting those who did not speak any of the languages used by the first residents of Atlantis. Before then, the population was small enough that this function was performed by Atlantis' only language wizard. However, as the population grew and spread across Atlantis' various residential areas, the work started building. And the language wizard is an immortal seven-year-old girl with a two-hundred-year-old attitude. With help from other residents, she started the Atlantis Language Resources Bureau, a division of Atlantis' government which archived and provided translation services for the hundreds of languages that were becoming common to life on Atlantis. Headed by the language wizard, the bureau's mission is to collect, archive, and provide resources for languages that are spoken on Earth by Humans and non-Humans as well as languages spoken by those from other universes. Texts are presented in multiple languages for both translators and other-language learners, and the bureau employs techs and programmers to provide language options for Atlantis' regional computer systems.

Meanwhile, in reality...
I came up with the idea mostly as a means of organizing the many constructed languages I have made. All of the files I've made for them are written under the guise of this organization mainly to give some structure and design to the texts. Inevitably, I had to come up with a logo. Because the bureau works toward providing language services, it made sense that the logo itself should be translated into multiple languages. Above are the translations for Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, the six primary languages of the United Nations. Does that mean they are correct? Probably not; the English, Spanish, and Chinese translations are the only ones I have any confidence in. Naturally, if someone wishes to correct me, I welcome it. The organization maintains the initialism "ALRB" since the first group to find Atlantis primarily spoke English to communicate with each other.

© 2023 B Sanders


Comments & Critiques (4)

Preferred comment/critique type for this content: Any Kind

Posted: Sunday, 05 March, 2023 @ 09:16 PM

Based on what I've seen from multilingual organizations, I think the acronym would be translated as well (eg. NATO→OTAN).

Question of where they picked up modern French aside, tracing a common tongue was a remarkably clever scene, especially for a Disney film.

Posted: Monday, 06 March, 2023 @ 03:03 AM

@Thorvald: I was going to mention that some language speakers commonly translate the acronym (BRLA for French, DMLA for Spanish, etc.), but I was trying to keep the description a little shorter this time. I might go ahead and revamp them with translated acronyms because, I admit, it really looks forced and awkward. I was a little too keen on keeping that "A" on top.

Marc Okrand knew what he was doing when he helped design the Atlantean language. However, Disney glances over a large part of the learning process (not entirely unwarranted since learning the language would take more time than they'd be willing to show). A better analogue would be Daniel Jackson learning Abydonian Egyptian; it is a dialect of Ancient Egyptian and Jackson, as an experienced linguist and Egyptologist, is able to at least reasonably discern the difference between them in order to fill in the gaps. Granted, the extent of Egyptian is no match for the details put into Atlantean. "Once you learn the vowels", indeed; many examples of Ancient Egyptian don't have vowels.

Posted: Monday, 06 March, 2023 @ 05:45 PM

@fragmented_imagination: It's funny, I know Stargate by reputation but next-to-nothing about the story (despite fan plugs in both DYOS and IOT); case in point, I didn't even know it started as a film. XD

Posted: Monday, 06 March, 2023 @ 08:37 PM

@Thorvald: Stargate originally had a premise similar to Star Trek, exploring planets one at a time. It enjoyed some mild success at best before it was ultimately cancelled. It had a good sense of humor, but the character politics and switch to arc storytelling started spoiling it for viewers.

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