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[goldeneyedflash]

Bart liked reading. He especially liked reading books in the original language, although learning enough to comprehend the subtleties lost in mental translation took a while, even for him. Unfortunately the bookshelf had changed its tune slightly. It was still only giving him books he'd already read, but today every single one had been in

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[theunascended]

Daniel had been looking for a good book to read, but the unfamiliar word - phrase? - threw him off guard. Not only wasn't it a language he knew, it was completely unfamiliar. At least things like Goa'uld were similar to things he knew.

"What language is that?" he asked quickly, moving over to look at the book. The text there was equally as unfamiliar.

[goldeneyedflash]

Bart blinked, then looked up at him. "Oh, it's Interlac. The bookshelf thinks it's funny, as usual. Bad translations of literary classics. Can you believe this guy removed all traces of accent and improper grammar from Huck Finn?" he said, pointing to what would be a passage if one actually knew what any of the characters represented.

"There's also a three page footnote on historical context of the word 'nigger.' Some of it's even right."

[theunascended]

Daniel vaguely heard what Bart had said about historical context and accent and improper grammar. Mostly, though, he focused on the name of the language. "Interlac? Never heard of it." But now he was curious.

"What society is that from?"

[goldeneyedflash]

"Thirtieth century Earth. It's sorta a galactic common," Bart said, trying to figure out how to explain it. "I suppose you could compare it to Esperanto, but they went with symbolic representation for most things, and in some ways the grammar is more like mathematical formulae than anything else."

He shrugged. "It's technically my first language."