Terran/Terra.

  • Mardoniush [she/her]
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    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I've always thought of them as terms for planets that might not even have human-vocalisable names that are just run through a basic translation. A lot of countries on Earth translate as "Home of The People" after all and if planets have the same it would make sense to render it as "Speciestania".

    On the other hand Klingons have Qo'nos of course. The Rihannsu continuity of Romulans that most fans (and the creators of Enterprise, and the guys running Star Trek Online) pretend is the real canon has the Romulan homeworlds as ch'Rihan (Of the Declared) and ch'Havran (Of the Travelers) which are references to the Romulans running away from Vulcan in sublight ships in order to preserve the original (bloody, violent, nuke happy) Vulcan culture.

    My favourite thing about Romulans is that their names for Terrans and Klingons (1st and 2nd contact respectively if you don't count an alien invasion of Vulcan) are "Them, From There" and "More Of Them, From Somewhere Else."

  • HarryLime [any]
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    1 year ago

    In TOS they called them Earthmen/Earthwomen

  • muddi [he/him]
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    1 year ago

    Yeah this is why basic linguistics or linguistic anthropology should be taught in schools. A lot of cultures throughout history simply call themselves "the People" and their land "the land of the People."

    I see people making fantasy or scifi maps with territories named as the "Khanate of _" or "Sultanate of _" and it hurts my head. Especially when the "evil race" is named something like the Dark Ones, who live in the Dark Lands

  • Alesson1 [comrade/them]
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    1 year ago

    I’m partial to first contact mispronunciations and misunderstandings, think China. The language model would probably hear the word world and assume that worldly isn’t pejorative.

      • Alesson1 [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Technically no but writing a sci fi series putting the “worldly” against the “heavenly hosts” then getting cute and tying it in with the class and caste origins of the word villain sounds like something someone should have done by now.