Galactic Languages

The galaxy has a rich variety of languages -- no species has yet been known to abandon its own languages for those of another. However, it is common that the Younger Races in an area use a language of their shared Elder Race patron as a lingua franca, giving the area a common tongue that is usually used to communicate among different species -- or sometimes amongst members of the same species that don't share a native language.

In addition to learning languages, many species have created devices to translate between languages, whether through computer software or through minor incantations or rituals. However, these are never as certain as having a fluent translator, so for important negotiations, a sentient translator is ubiquitous.

Local Cluster Languages

• Grey Speech: While not the only language of the Greys, this is the tongue that they commonly make available to the Younger Races under their care, and other races they interact with. Human linguists that have studied it agree that it is almost certainly an artificial constructed language, not unlike Esperanto -- in fact, some even have nicknamed it Grey Esperanto. The language is intended for clear communication -- it lacks a lot of capacity for subtleties that organically-evolved languages possess, but it makes up for its poor poetic potential by preventing misunderstandings in potentially explosive meetings between alien races.