Is Starfinder common just actually English?

[CorvusMask]

I mean... Pathfinder Common is Taldane but its never confirmed that Starfinder common is Taldane.

Why I'm making this joke? because I finally realized that several robots in different arts have Latin letters or numbers on them instead of fictional letters x'D

(but seriously though, there are probably SOME pathfinder art as well with English in them instead of fictional unreadable letters x'D)

[Peg'giz]

In fact these are arabic numbers not latin. ;)

And I guess these are simply because of the Gallifreyan universal translation matrix which is imbedded in every book and pdf, so we, who can't ready common, can understand it. :D

[CorvusMask]

Ah dagnabbit, I forgot numbers and letters came from different systems x'D (the latin numbers would be like I, II, III and etc right?)

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

CorvusMask wrote:

Ah dagnabbit, I forgot numbers and letters came from different systems x'D (the latin numbers would be like I, II, III and etc right?)

Ita est.

("It is thus" - Latin lacks a word for "yes")

[WatersLethe]

Weird Clock with Numbers

[FormerFiend]

Peg'giz wrote:

In fact these are arabic numbers not latin. ;)

And I guess these are simply because of the Gallifreyan universal translation matrix which is imbedded in every book and pdf, so we, who can't ready common, can understand it. :D

Also technically Arabic numerals actually originate from India. They're just called "Arabic" because Europe got them from the Arab world.

[Metaphysician]

Of course its not English. English is a mostly-Germanic language, whereas Modern Common is a mostly-Taldan language. :p

( Though its probably picked up a ton of stolen grammar and vocabulary from a dozen other languages, ranging from Tian to Verthani. . . )

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

Metaphysician wrote:

( Though its probably picked up a ton of stolen grammar and vocabulary from a dozen other languages, ranging from Tian to Verthani. . . )

And Earth is confirmed to exist in Starfinder, with some contact between it and Golarion dating back to Pathfinder and before (tho not much). It is quite possible that SOME English made it into Pact Standard...

Someone once figured out the approximate year conversion between Pathfinder and Earth. The Gap obviously exists to make such history gathering difficult, but one could certainly do some math and make a guess about when Starfinder is set...

Also, what was the thing that was special about Golarion, Androffa, and Earth? Was it that they were all possible origins of the human race? Or something about divine attention?

[BigNorseWolf]

I think the number of things you'd have to change to have a fictional language would be far, far too much work for the payoff. Everything from the Chandrasekhar limit to an orrery or even a sandwich is going to show that it's in english.

[thejeff]

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

Metaphysician wrote:

( Though its probably picked up a ton of stolen grammar and vocabulary from a dozen other languages, ranging from Tian to Verthani. . . )

And Earth is confirmed to exist in Starfinder, with some contact between it and Golarion dating back to Pathfinder and before (tho not much). It is quite possible that SOME English made it into Pact Standard...

Possible, but extremely unlikely.

Contact is basically limited to the Baba Yaga and a handful of adventurers.
A parallel might be looking for linguistic contributions from Native American languages to early Renaissance French through the Icelandic attempts to settle Vinland.

[John Mangrum]

Apparently a handful of Russian speakers did settle in Irrisen as a result of the Baba Yaga AP, it turns out.

[Garretmander]

Yeah, it's unlikely any English made it into common, Russian on the other hand...

[thejeff]

Garretmander wrote:

Yeah, it's unlikely any English made it into common, Russian on the other hand...

Even so, we're looking at a handful of people who might have had some influence on the Irrisen languages, but it's even more of a stretch for that influence to extend to Taldane or to whatever language eventually became Starfinder Common.

To go back to my analogy, it wouldn't be too shocking if some native American terms made their way into Icelandic from the Vinland settlement attempts, but for a parallel those would have needed to be adopted into major continental European languages.

[Pope Uncommon the Dainty]

I mean, all the arguments about the sheer UNLIKELIHOOD of there being even a couple traces of English in Pact Standard are super valid. The chances are vanishingly small.

AND

Vanishingly small chances are not no chance. The sheer immense number of vanishingly small chances in the universe results in some of them occurring (the Law of Big Numbers; if it's a 1 in 1,000,000,000 chance, it's prolly happened to 8 people currently alive on Earth, for example).

SO

If someone got really super excited that the Indo-Arabic numerals were showing up on robots in Starfinder, there is a (very, very narrow and limited) path for that to occur. It would prolly be a common sight on one of those lists of random weird facts that have gotten so many socially awkward people through parties in their 20s and it might be fruitful/worth it/necessary to trace that path.

Those kinds of weird fluke things are what give reality its savor!

And, yeah, Irrisen with Russia seems to be the closest contact, but I swear that there were a few others? (none particularly helpful re: English, tho) Osirion and Kemet, mebbe?

And again, I also remember there being some something special about Golarion, Androffa, and Earth, as a like "The only three planets which..." kinda thing....

[thejeff]

Sure, but the far more likely explanation is that the numbers are being translated like the language is.

[John Mangrum]

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

And, yeah, Irrisen with Russia seems to be the closest contact, but I swear that there were a few others? (none particularly helpful re: English, tho) Osirion and Kemet, mebbe?

Don't know what the current state of affairs is, but in PF1 canon the gods of the Egyptian pantheon founded Osirion on Golarion, then moved on to Earth and founded Egypt next.

[Garretmander]

John Mangrum wrote:

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

And, yeah, Irrisen with Russia seems to be the closest contact, but I swear that there were a few others? (none particularly helpful re: English, tho) Osirion and Kemet, mebbe?

Don't know what the current state of affairs is, but in PF1 canon the gods of the Egyptian pantheon founded Osirion on Golarion, then moved on to Earth and founded Egypt next.

DND was the opposite, which might be what they were thinking?

[BigNorseWolf]

Whos the egyptian gods of timelines again?

[UnArcaneElection]

Must have something to do with the reason why aliens all over the galaxy usually know perfect English, better than many US citizens.

[breithauptclan]

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

Vanishingly small chances are not no chance. The sheer immense number of vanishingly small chances in the universe results in some of them occurring (the Law of Big Numbers; if it's a 1 in 1,000,000,000 chance, it's prolly happened to 8 people currently alive on Earth, for example).

Pet peeve of mine: when people mis-use the Law of Large Numbers.

Basically the Law of Large Numbers is that when you measure something from a sample, the average of the sample will get closer to the average of the total population as the number of samples gets larger.

So polling 10 people in the country is not a large enough sample size. But polling 10,000 people and taking the average will be very close to the actual average result from the population.

What you are actually describing is a Binomial Probability distribution. And like all proper probability distributions the probability of an event being predicted to happen will never actually reach 100%.

[David knott 242]

Pope Uncommon the Dainty wrote:

Metaphysician wrote:

( Though its probably picked up a ton of stolen grammar and vocabulary from a dozen other languages, ranging from Tian to Verthani. . . )

And Earth is confirmed to exist in Starfinder, with some contact between it and Golarion dating back to Pathfinder and before (tho not much). It is quite possible that SOME English made it into Pact Standard...

Someone once figured out the approximate year conversion between Pathfinder and Earth. The Gap obviously exists to make such history gathering difficult, but one could certainly do some math and make a guess about when Starfinder is set...

Pathfinder matches up with Earth about a century ago.

The Gap is estimated to last for thousands of years, so that century does not really matter. Starfinder matches up with Earth in the distant future. Star Trek and Babylon 5 would be too close to the present, but the Dune setting or the Foundation setting could be a match.

[UnArcaneElection]

Now I've got this vision of the Starfinder Society finally managing to get an expedition to our galaxy, and wondering "what are all these idiots doing with this ban on computers?"