What is the "official language" of Macross

[justplainZero]

I realise its Japenese, but is it just because of the audience? or do we all start speaking Japanese in the Macross future? It seems that there are many non Japenese names, whats the deal?

[jenius]

It's predominantly English... note all the writing.

[EXO]

DYRL was English... Frontier was Engrish.

[RedWolf]

Well there is English like Macross 11. French like Sheryl. Chinese obviously judging by some of the landmarks of Frontier.

Oh yeah there is Zentran also.

Things is the survivors of the Macross being the ones relatively intact became the dominating culture post Space War 1.

Macross City being the capital and the political center of the New UN.

[polidread]

English, with a dash of japanese and a spattering of zentraedi.

Frontier had english on the military monitors, dual language displays on public videowalls (specially on the transpo system) and had zentraedi DECULTURE used as slang everywhere.

[Morpheus]

Depends on dub.

[Killer Robot]

What got me was how according to displays Frontier uses US style social security numbers and postal addresses, not to mention the hospital climate control reads temperature in Fahrenheit. Of course, by this same logic Sheryl's illness was caused by an Adobe After Effects plugin, so this can be taken with a grain of salt.

[d3v]

Well if you consider that English was probably the official language used by the UN Forces pre-SW1, but most of the people living in South Ataria probably spoke Japanese, it's probable that the language in use in 2059 is an amalgamation of both, romanized japanese with english as well as some Zentran mixed in.

[sketchley]

Looking just at the languages that survived SWI:

SDF-1 (military plus civilian): I'd have to say English. Many militaries use it to communicate, and the majority of civilians on South Ataria Island would've been doing so (after all, it's the lingua franca of East Asia and South East Asia - the most likely source for the majority of the residents on South Ataria Island)

Grand Cannons: again English, with a healthy dose of Japanese (Japanese appears to be one of the prime technology centers/movers and shakers in the pre-SWI era. Case in point: the VF-1J; J for Japan.)

Apollo Moon Base: English and Japanese (same reasons as above)

Colony Clusters: nothing is known about these. Given that Kawamori Shouji is a Gundam fan, I've speculated that they are like the O'neil Cylinders seen in the original Gundam. Population would be mixed. English and Japanese would most likely have been the main languages.

On the dub side of things: the original releases are Japanese, with the occasional English, Zentraedi, French and other languages. The signs in Macross Plus and Frontier indicate a similar pattern.

And the reality check (note the predominance of English, as well as Korean on the sign (Korean being present only at larger stations) Japan is a country with a heck of a lot of English despite not everyone being able to speak it or read it. The same can hold true for Macross. What signage we see doesn't necessarily reflect what is really spoken:

[Roy Focker]

From my understanding all communications from (real) pilots to (real) traffic control is done in English. I believe English is the official Language of the UNSpacy but, that does mean they speak it all the time. On the SDF Macross you occasional hear/read some Engrish emergency messages. DYRL? there is few Engrish as well. Fact that we can hear both Japanese and a rare bit of Engrlsh makes me believe that they characters are speaking Japanese and it's not just for the audience.

Later Macross 11 is regarded as an English Speaking Fleet. To me that means English is the dominate language used. Isn't just by bill boards are emergency messages. I think that the language used varies from place to place. We hear Japanese alot because it is the dominate language used but the characters featured. People have a greater command of foreign languages allowing them to speak with locals. There is likely several official spoke langages but I suspect that Engrish is the official written language. Things like contracts or written orders to avoid confusion would have to be in the same language. Also when Misa, a Japanese woman translated the song in DYRL? she translated its written form in English.

[d3v]

In light of the above arguments stating that English is the official language, while Japanese or Engrish is the more commonly spoken one, we can probably say that language in the Macross universe is probably like how it is in certain countries where the official language isn't what the people on the street are using. Just like where I live (the Philippines) where English is the official language, Filipino/Tagalog is the language most people are born into, and the lingua-franca is an amalgamation of the two (Taglish), in Macross, we may have a situation now where Engrish (or more properly Japalish, since Japanese is seemingly more dominant) is the lingua-franca of most people.

Edited October 22, 2008 by d3v

[boota]

They also click and use hand signals just like Nixau. They just do it so fast we can't see them.

[Final Vegeta]

In this interview it is mentioned the common language on Frontier is a hybrid of English, Japanese and Chinese.

FV

[d3v]

In this interview it is mentioned the common language on Frontier is a hybrid of English, Japanese and Chinese.

FV

Chinglese?

[VFTF1]

I don't think Macross universe has an "official" language - it's pretty much like our real world. People speak more than one language usually and usually have to use and understand more than one. I dunno, I like in the EU, it's multilingual and you just get used to it. Everybody and their grandmother speaks at least three languages - it's really rare to find a person who doesn't speak at least two and most people study other languages just because it's good to know more than one.

I imagine Frontier and the broad Macross universe are the same.

Pete

[Mr March]

Maybe it's like Star Wars; no one can actually speaks the many languages, but they all understand what everyone else is saying

Edited October 22, 2008 by Mr March

[sketchley]

Japlish.

At least that's what us native speakers tend to say. (Fun fact: google search of Japlish results in mostly English sites. Japalish results in only Japanese sites. Ahh... Japanese phonetics.)

(...) (or more properly Japalish, (...)

Edited October 23, 2008 by sketchley

[Nexx Stalker]

Japanese, I presume.

Edited October 22, 2008 by Nexx Stalker

[Gubaba]

I think we have to go by what's written, since of course everyone is speaking Japanese...

But in SDFM you see some English and some Japanese (some Chinese, too...but only at Nyan Nyan).

In DYRL, even though "Do You Remember Love" is sung in Japanese, it's written out in English.

All the computer screens in Macross Plus are in English. Ditto 7.

In Frontier, Sheryl writes in French, Ranka in Japanese, and all the official documents are in English.

Which all leads me to believe that even if English isn't the "official language," there's a strong English presence in the world of Macross, but there are at least a few other languages that have survived.

That said, I think Mr. March's theory is probably closest to the truth.

[Ghost Train]

The official language is engrish .

Recently watched DYRL again. The few lines of english used in the intro is far superior to the engrish used in the first few minutes of Frontier, I mean come on lol just hire one of the thousands of foreigners in Japan to speak a few lines into a microphone (or just do it all in Japanese).

[sketchley]

They hired the foreigners to read the Zentraedi lines in DYRL...

[d3v]

I don't think Macross universe has an "official" language - it's pretty much like our real world. People speak more than one language usually and usually have to use and understand more than one. I dunno, I like in the EU, it's multilingual and you just get used to it. Everybody and their grandmother speaks at least three languages - it's really rare to find a person who doesn't speak at least two and most people study other languages just because it's good to know more than one.

I imagine Frontier and the broad Macross universe are the same.

Pete

Well it depends on your understanding of the term "official language." If it means official in that it's the standard used by government, etc. then it does have to have an official language (which from what we've seen is English). However, I believe this topic is referring to the lingua franc, the language used by the people on the street. which, from an interview poster earlier, it seems to be a mix of Japanese, English and Chinese.

[regult]

Has anybody forgotten about Macross Zero??

If the subs I got were not completely wrong, Shin tells Sara that if it wasn't because they speak the same language, they'd not be able to communicate so easily (meaning the UN and the unification was not all bad), so, the arguments regarding SDF Macross, surviving population, etc. would be a bit pointless: the world-language was something of a reality before Britai came to Earth searching for the Supervision Army.

Unless of course we have decided to dismiss Zero as canon altogether??

Edited October 23, 2008 by regult

[sketchley]

Shin's statement could be interpreted many ways. I've always interpreted it as Sara is worldwise and knows more than the native language of Mayan Island.

It's also possible that during WWII, Mayan island developed a Cargo Cult, and adopted the language of whomever they chose as their god.

Another possibility is that Shin speaks the language used on Mayan. As in, Shin's from Hawai'i*, speaks Hawai'ian, part of the Polynesian language family, and Mayan (the language) is also Polynesian.

In other words, Shin's statement is too vague.

*Not sure if he is, or isn't. Which is beside the point that I'm trying to make herein.

Edited October 23, 2008 by sketchley

[taksraven]

DYRL was English... Frontier was Engrish.

Engrish is the greatest language known to humanity.

Taksraven

[lord_breetai]

Did you know the United States dosn't have an "official language"? Neither English nor Spanish is the official language... English is just the default language because that's what most of the population speaks. The US's official language was almost German (not even kidding).

When I worked at a phone company this actually came up, we had a customer complaining that our having a spanish prompt was illegal since we should have only the official language or every language spoken by anyone in the US (no I'm not American, this was outsourced call center work). Anyway...

Since we have English Fire... a band which (in canon?) covers Fire Bomber's songs for an english speaking audience (their music being featured in Dynamite 7... it would seem that the Macross World is more diverse in languages then we would expect given the low survival rate of the rain of death.

Languages that seem to be in use

-Japanese (many people on South Ataria seemed to be Japanese likely scientists and technicians who brother their familes, who opened other buisnesses) Remember that the Lynn's were part-Japanese themeselves.

-Chinese

-French

-English

-Zolan

-Zentraedi

Since we have Zolan's as a known humanoid race who added another language into the mix, there might be more.

[Keith]

Official language is Japanese, der!

[sketchley]

From the standpoint of learner and teacher, it is one of the most TERRIBLE languages.

Easy (or simple)? I believe Esperanto is one of the easiest. No, I don't know it.

Engrish is the greatest language known to humanity.

Taksraven

[lord_breetai]

From the standpoint of learner and teacher, it is one of the most TERRIBLE languages.

Easy (or simple)? I believe Esperanto is one of the easiest. No, I don't know it.

Of course speaking as a future linguist, and culturist, you also have to take into account if it's a high or low context/contact culture, it's not just the language itself.

And I think I'd have to agree, though I'd say the romance languages in general... especially for an English speaker (English is Germanic not Romance but it has a lot of ties to romance languages).

French, Spanish, Portugese, Itallian, Latin. I really do want to learn them.. and from what I've been told once you learn two romance languages it's very, very easy to pick up the rest of them really quickly.

[thegunny]

Has anybody forgotten about Macross Zero??

Would be nice if we could

Unless of course we have decided to dismiss Zero as canon altogether??

Can we

They spoke tree and birdy num-num didn't they

[sketchley]

I'm referring more to how English is largely a mix of other languages (Germanic yet strongly Romance, + a bunch of other stuff). Grammatically, "the exception is the rule".

From what I've learned of the Romance languages, the rules are generally consistant (the exception is the rarity). Which is also true for the Altaic languages that I've learned.

Of course speaking as a future linguist, and culturist, you also have to take into account if it's a high or low context/contact culture, it's not just the language itself.

And I think I'd have to agree, though I'd say the romance languages in general... especially for an English speaker (English is Germanic not Romance but it has a lot of ties to romance languages). (...)

[EXO]

Discussed before. While the song DYRL is sung in Japanese, the notes that Misa took from the Protoculture language was translated into English. So you have to assume that while they're speaking in Japanese in the movie, everything being said was really in English.

[lord_breetai]

Discussed before. While the song DYRL is sung in Japanese, the notes that Misa took from the Protoculture language was translated into English. So you have to assume that while they're speaking in Japanese in the movie, everything being said was really in English.

Logic failure!

1) Lots of Anime use english even ones where the language should obviously be something else (including Japanese) it might have been a design estethic rather then anything else.

2) Again Misa could have been multi-lingual

3) It was a movie inside the macross continuity, so the rule about it possibly being a design esthtic holds doubly true.

[EXO]

Logic failure!

1) Lots of Anime use english even ones where the language should obviously be something else (including Japanese) it might have been a design estethic rather then anything else.

2) Again Misa could have been multi-lingual

3) It was a movie inside the macross continuity, so the rule about it possibly being a design esthtic holds doubly true.

uhhh... ok. Let's ignore lineart, screen captures and every solid evidence and go with whatever makes you happy that would win you the argument...

[lord_breetai]

uhhh... ok. Let's ignore lineart, screen captures and every solid evidence and go with whatever makes you happy that would win you the argument...

lol... just that there are obvious examples that there are multiple human languages still in existance after the rain of death. I don't really have a side on the official language thing. I'm just pointing out that you can't neccisarly use that to prove the point.