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Kadir beneath Mo Moteh.Edit: All right, I'll explain. It is from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Darmok" where the crew encounters a species that communicates by metaphor, by alluding to characters and stories. "Shaka, when the walls fell" means a failure to do something, "Darmok and Jelad at Tanagra" is two people coming together over a common struggle, "Temba, his arms open" is offering a gift, "The river Temarc in winter" is telling someone to stop what they're doing, and "Kadir beneath Mo Moteh" is a failure to communicate.
You haven't watched enough television then. I grant that the Tamarian language doesn't really hold up to scrutiny, but that's about the only real flaw in the episode - if you can suspend disbelief and take the language as presented, I think the episode works beautifully as a story of two cultures, through two people, coming to an understanding around a language barrier. Since Star Trek has the universal translator, the Tamarians simply speaking a different language wouldn't be a problem - they'd need to have an entirely different way of speaking, and if the writers' way of coming up with one isn't perfect but still serves its function in the story, I'll knock a point off the final score but it doesn't tank the episode for me as a whole.Also, a number of the posts presented in your link are arguing that it really isn't all that out-there a concept.
To be fair, that's after 7 years.
That this post is still a thing after seven years is both impressive and depressive
Some of the posts are arguing that, but they're wrong. I was specifically referring to the one top post there. Unless the words in the metaphors mean something literally, they can't actually refer to anything.
The Tamarian language is explored further in the short story "Friends with the Sparrows" from the TNG anthology The Sky's the Limit. In the story, it is explained that Tamarians have a fundamentally different brain structure to most humanoids, and as such experience concepts such as time and self differently.The story explains that Tamarian children learn the stories behind the metaphors, and thus their meanings, through enactment and repetition. Variations of meaning in metaphors were conveyed through subtle vocal and gestural cues that the universal translator had previously missed. In fields such as engineering and programming, a musical language was used to convey precise equations, numbers and instructions; thus explaining how Tamarians could effectively operate starships.
staying with the theme of movies, I saw the secret life of pets yesterday, it was really funny.
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