BladeZone's Off World Forums

Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 6:55 am**

If Star Trek fans can learn Klingon (there's a book out there that teaches basic phrases and gammar), then why can't we learn City-speak? I think we should get some linguistic experts to further develope the "guttertalk, mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you." Does anyone know who is responsible for the city-speak dialogue used in the movie?
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Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 7:07 am**

Y'know, at one time, I was going to create a huge 'Cityspeak' dictionary. My first step was to chose the English words I wanted to translate. I went through Webster's dictionary marking the words I had chosen. I got about halfway through when I realized what a BIG project it was going to be. There was no way one guy could do it so I just abandoned the project. Something like that would require a team effort. If anyone chooses to tackle such a massive project . . . good luck! 
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Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 7:21 am**

That's why I'm wondering WHO during the production of BR wrote the city-speak dialogue. Was it some "joe-shmoe" that simply used the first thing that came to mind, or was a linguistic person used. I know that in Star Trek they actually use linguistic experts to come up with the many alien languages heard on the show. The same goes for Babyon 5. Then again, the city-speak heard in the movie was only two short lines. Maybe Ridley just used the gibberish he heard his baby say at home! _________________ Pain heals, chick's dig scars, glory lasts forever! [ This Message was edited by: endzem on 2001-12-03 13:23 ]

Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 9:05 am**

According to 'Future Noir' (is anyone tired of me referring to the 'Blade Runner Bible', yet?) Edward James Olmos (Gaff) came up with the cityspeak dialogue spoken by Gaff. It's a mixture of Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Hungarian, Japanese and some words made up by Olmos himself. I doubt that you can 'learn' it as I don't think it is a fully formed language in the same way that Klingon is. _________________ <IMG SRC="http://www.deckard.worldonline.co.uk/filez/BR26354.gif" BORDER="0"> Richard Gunn News and Content Manager for Bladezone <A HREF="mailto:richardg@bladezone.com">richardg@bladezone.com</A> [ This Message was edited by: Deckard BR26354 on 2001-12-03 15:09 ]

Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 9:59 am**

And what has Edward James Olmos done since BR? Basically NOTHING! So I say he should get off his butt and fully develope the city-speak lingo and have it published. Harry, why don't you share with us the words or phrases (if any) that you did translate before you stopped.

Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 2:11 pm**

Well he was Lt. Martin Castillo on Miami Vice, and had some other roles <IMG SRC="/forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> And he did pretty much invent the dialouge known as city-speak.
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Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2001 3:22 pm**

Gaff rocks. But then... everything in Blade Runner rocks!
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Posted: **Fri Feb 01, 2002 8:15 pm**

well, Gaff kicks ass. I like him, and he should have had a little more space in the film. But on the other hand, if HE really is the blade runner, and Deckard IS a replicant (depends on one's own interpretation of the film I guess) then he's cool enough. uuh. that made no sense. I'm tired. BTW, the first two or three seasons of Miami Vice is probably my favourite tv series next to Twin Peaks and The X-Files.

Posted: **Wed Feb 06, 2002 12:05 am**

Originally the dialogue was going to be Japanese. Edward James Olmos created the few lines of Cityspeak to make it more interesting. As this is a mixture of languages, it is not really a language itself and with such a small amount to start with, there is little point trying to extrapolate from it. For full details of Cityspeak including translation, please read the <A HREF="http://www.brmovie.com/FAQs/BR_FAQ_Language.htm" TARGET="_blank">Blade Runner FAQ</A>. 
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Posted: **Wed Feb 06, 2002 3:50 pm**

That's right. All we've got is a couple of prhases, of dobious syntax and with out their exact meaning. If Tolkien's universe fans can't really speak quenya (elfic)... I mean we can say "some things" in that language, but AFAIK noone can really speak it fluently, because there are too many blanks ... we don't even know how to say YES! And that is the situation, even when Tolkien dedicated years to make these languages up! So, how could we learn Cityspeak? Unless some of us formed a team with that objective I don't see it happening, and even in that case it would be quite unlike. For example, how should we manage the relative dominance of one language over the others in each phrase? I guess the only way to learn cityspeak is living, or even better GROWING in Ridley's LA streets, from ...say, 2010 to 2019? <IMG SRC="/forum/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif">
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Posted: **Tue Feb 19, 2002 10:13 am**

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD>Quote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><BLOCKQUOTE> On 2001-12-03 12:55, endzem wrote: If Star Trek fans can learn Klingon (there's a book out there that teaches basic phrases and gammar)</BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE> He he he, I have it in my hand... nuqDaq waqwlj vllamHa'choHmoH 'Where can I get my shoes cleaned?' _________________ <IMG SRC="http://www.bladezone.com/contents/film/image-library/Thumbs/1604758_Taffey.jpg" BORDER="0"> "Louie. The man is dry." Life - interesting in parts, but no substitute for the real thing [ This Message was edited by: tomtrek on 2002-02-19 16:15 ]

Posted: **Wed Feb 20, 2002 12:24 pm**

Here's the way I was going to approach the City-speak vocabulary . . . 1) Choose the words needed for a very basic vocabulary. More words could always be added later. 2) Find the translations of all those words in all the various languages that make up City-speak. 3) Choose the translation of each word that is the easiest to say or remember. Now you know why I gave up on this project soon after I started it! Way more work than one person could handle. 
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Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2002 3:18 am**

Or you could just learn Esperanto, which was created much according to the method you propose! Cityspeak though wouldn't have a formal grammar or even necessarily have only one choice of word from different languages for each person that speaks it. As a mishmash of different languages spoken on the street, it is my supposition that it would probably be flexible, informal and unwritten. 
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Posted: **Thu Feb 21, 2002 6:20 am**

Here is a site I found that you may find useful in creating languages: <A HREF="http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/~jrk/conlang.html" TARGET="_blank">Constructed Language page</A>. It has links to pretty much everything you would need to know. 
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BladeZone's Off World Forums

I want to lean "City-speak"!