Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => Player Driven Content => Topic started by: Nmaro Makari on 06 Sep 2014, 05:35
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CCP has a dictionary for some of the language in EVE, but because we all are pretty much guaranteed to communicate in English it's not expansive.
So a lot of times, RPers have filled in the gaps or attached pretty little linguistic ribbons to their environment, some notable examples:
- RDCs ranks, Taisho, Chujo etc
- Ava's Sebbie Stuffs, nordic words abound
- Our own names, players with even a small grasp on the lore who make a character for RP want to give them a name that sounds Amarrian, Gallente, etc
This thread is pretty much just a discussion, do you use words from IRL languages (excluding English, in case that had to be stated) in your RP universe? What words, what do you use them for? Are there some things that should be avoided, should you try and change the word to account for the fact that the language itself does not actually exist in the lore? In fact do you make up words that just sound the part?
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Latin/Greek is commonly used for Amarr, both by players and developers. Arabic/Persian/Hebrew is also used very regular, especially in nomenclature. Many Amarr NPC ships have either Arabic/Persian/Hebrew names (Tanakh, Muzakir, Tamir) or they have names of Roman popes (Sixtus, Donus, Agatho, etc). The bestower also used to have Greek letters, and there is the oft-referenced Ardishapur = Ardashir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardashir_I)+Shapur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_I) connection (both Persian).
Ergo I'll use all of those as inspiration personally, though I try to focus on the Arabic/Persian/Hebrew angle because Latin is always used for 'empire/religious' factions in games and is thus rather dull for me. Plus the Ardashir/Shapur thing makes me think of the Ardishapur area probably having more of a Persian dialect, and Sami is Ardishapurian, where other regions in the Empire might have more Latin/Greek ones. Amarr's large enough to have multiple inspirations as regional variations. Where I most often personally use inspirations from these languages is in ship names, as I try to avoid English ship names wherever possible. Typically I try to go for a name that evokes the general idea of that class using word(s) from one of the above languages (IE all of my battleships are named for apocalyptic/end times events because Amarr battleship classes all have those. My geddons are Gehenna (greek/hebrew), and my apocs are Qiyamah (arabic). I'd probably go Jahannam (arabic) for an abaddon, if I had one).
I don't mind specific references to RL usually, depending on what it is. When it's actually an IC reference to a specific RL person or place where such a reference otherwise couldn't exist (Stockholm Syndrome), then I'm iffy on it. Otherwise I don't mind too much.
What I absolutely despise is people using RL languages in actual IC dialogue. Like, full sentences. A) The translators are supposed to translate all of that anyway, and B ) I don't want to have to copy-paste everything you say into an online translator just to be able to properly RP a character who is supposed to understand that language's in-game counterpart.
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Very informative! Some stuff I didn't know there. I am sometimes neutral on language in IC dialogue, but perhaps that's because I was guilty of it in earlier days...
Edit: Also, on a whim I looked up the Norwegian word for "Single Combat" or "Duel" and it is apparently "Tvekamp", and boy do I have plans for it :D
Kampsport is also Martial Arts
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As long as it's translated in brackets or OOCly somewhere, I don't mind it much.
I used to mind it very much in the case of Napaani, or player made popular languages in general. Had to look every word up so that I could understand what was said through my universal translator. After a bit of time I learned what this or that napaani word was, same for other languages as the almighty Ashaltiasten for Amarr, etc. But it still was a question of principles, it was damn annoying.
Also crusaded a lot against americans using inches and non standard metrics in a game using universal units, and where people of other languages were doing the effort to speak english. Was a personal pet peeve of mine, this. :D
Nah actually, I was pretty much fond of the old way of saying /me speaks in ancient gallente : 'HELLO WORLD' since we already use a language which doesn't even exist in New Eden in the first place (english).
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I never even bothered to look up napaani.
The translators should translate it all.
Also, napaani is a language created for eve and has a glossary, whereas for others id need to pirate copies of rosetta stone. so no.
:)
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"You are a filthy [word that should be translated but, for some reason, isn't for the sole purpose of reinforcing the person speaking's original or adopted nationality even though it just comes off as fucking annoying]!"
I can understand (sort of) the need to try to make a character seem... erm... classy? By using ~great~ and ~exotic~ words, but for the most part cursing removes sense of class, no matter what language. It's just obnoxious, for the most part. And I can get stuff like ... idk, the Nordic shit that Ava/Kyllsa uses to describe cool Minmatar stuff. I mean, I'm sure some Gallenteans wouldn't have a proper vocab to describe it, and I doubt universal translators would suddenly tack on a paragraph of meaning and somesuch. I don't know, really. Depends on how much I like the person.
Anyway, I'll use IRL languages to name my ships if I'm wormhole diving and the corp living in the w-space isn't English. I'll try to make it "No Harm" or "PLZ NO SHOOT" in German or some shit; it's always fun.
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I named a battleship "Потемкин"
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Kampsport is also Martial Arts
Kampsport is more combat/fighting sport, stressing the sportive aspect a lot (up to the exclusion of others). Martial Arts would more be 'Kampkunst'.
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Mmmmh... while I am aware that translators take care of everything, I like a smatter of non-English here and there.
As capsuleers, we do live in an international environment and maybe we should not be surprised to find accents or words that do not translate. I find myself occasionally using Gallentean (French) words work to convey accent, origin or emotion. (As someone said, "your mother tongue is the language your curse in, when you accidentally hit your thumb with a hammer.") Likewise, I find it charming when someone calls me Delorois-haani or stuff I cannot translate - it spices things up and reminds me I am not with my own.
Some other times I will try and use a very limited vocabulary in someone else's language to represent that I am not from here, but I am trying hard to fit (i.e. babbling with Dutch corpmates, who happened to be overwhelmingly Caldari). And, as in the real world, people do realise you are not going through a translator and more often than not appreciate the gesture, which in turn feeds into RP.
That being said, if I ever speak non-English, it will probably be something the person across understands and not an arcane tongue. Quite the opposite, sometimes I will intentionally use loaded words (i.e. muggle for baseliner) because they are simply a better fit, even though that may technically be an RP sin. :P
Q
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I use slightly garbled google translate japanese for my Achur backstory things. I rationalize it by only using it for nouns as it is unlikely they would be translated.
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My ships are usually named using the Sumerian/Akkadian mythos artificially 'corrupted' by the passage of millennia. It's not really congruent with the roots I use from the Oyirad and Mongolic dialects to construct terminology for Clan and Family stuff, but I excuse it in that they are meant to be the names of old spirits, therefore much different from modern Vherokior dialects.
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Kampsport is also Martial Arts
Kampsport is more combat/fighting sport, stressing the sportive aspect a lot (up to the exclusion of others). Martial Arts would more be 'Kampkunst'.
Not the case. The word kampsport is largely the only one we use for martial arts. Kampkunst would be more of a google translate sort of translation and is not in use. As for tvekamp, it's a word that isn't in common usage either as we'd probably use duell instead (which you can probably guess the source of). Of course, it's entirely valid but it's very old and largely discarded.
I honestly feel a bit weird about seeing Norwegian (particularly modern Norwegian like kampsport etc) used in RP. It doesn't strike me as something that fits too well in the PF as most references aim more for the old Norse words and concepts. Icelandic and Norse words used as influence fits the naming conventions of ships and other things far better and would be less jarring I think.
There's some words that are technically still part of modern Norwegian/Scandinavian but have sources far enough back to fit, like Holmgang, Tvekamp and such that wouldn't feel like a mish-mash of cultures but the modern common language feels off in an RP setting.
Back in my own RP days, Norse was used by quite a few Minmatar RPers myself included but I don't think we ever used pure Norwegian or any of the other scandinavian languages as anything but inspiration for things we made up ourselves.
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(http://i.imgur.com/B1FR1dI.gif)
#iredswag #vote4john #katbutt #muppetpenis
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Whenever possible, Ché will use french(-like) words and phrases that are also used by english speaking people, like: Faux pas, cul de sac, Pardon, à la carte, à propos, raison d'entre, reconnaissance, en masse, etc.
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I avoid all odd use of language. I gave up on Napaani long ago, even in greetings or exclamations and other minimalist ways people use them. I do not think EVE is conducive to such details.
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I do not think EVE is conducive to details.
Fixed that for you!
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Mmmmh... while I am aware that translators take care of everything, I like a smatter of non-English here and there.
As capsuleers, we do live in an international environment and maybe we should not be surprised to find accents or words that do not translate. I find myself occasionally using Gallentean (French) words work to convey accent, origin or emotion. (As someone said, "your mother tongue is the language your curse in, when you accidentally hit your thumb with a hammer.") Likewise, I find it charming when someone calls me Delorois-haani or stuff I cannot translate - it spices things up and reminds me I am not with my own.
Some other times I will try and use a very limited vocabulary in someone else's language to represent that I am not from here, but I am trying hard to fit (i.e. babbling with Dutch corpmates, who happened to be overwhelmingly Caldari). And, as in the real world, people do realise you are not going through a translator and more often than not appreciate the gesture, which in turn feeds into RP.
That being said, if I ever speak non-English, it will probably be something the person across understands and not an arcane tongue. Quite the opposite, sometimes I will intentionally use loaded words (i.e. muggle for baseliner) because they are simply a better fit, even though that may technically be an RP sin. :P
Q
That's quite true...
Whenever possible, Ché will use french(-like) words and phrases that are also used by english speaking people, like: Faux pas, cul de sac, Pardon, à la carte, à propos, raison d'entre, reconnaissance, en masse, etc.
Raison d'être. :D
Raison d'entre is funny though.
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I do not think EVE is conducive to details.
Fixed that for you!
:psyccp:
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Raison d'être. :D
Raison d'entre is funny though.
:eek: You don't say...
Then....for the most part of my life I've entirely misunderstood its meaning. I always thought it was "reason for entering/taking part" instead of "reason for existence".
Funny how nobody ever seemed to notice... :s
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Well it would be "raison d'entrer" then (entrer -> enter, the verb). "Raison d'entre" could mean "reason between" [something]. The sentence is not quite complete.
Speaking about misundertandings, I badly wrote for years the english word "connoisseur" as "connaisseur", the latter being is the current evolved form of the old word that remained in english. I had kinda the same reaction as yours when I got corrected. :)
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It took until my Jr. year in college for a professor to point out to me that a phrase I was using is "for all intents and purposes" - not "for all intensive purposes". And that's just a pronunciation thing, as they sound the same said quickly.
Languages are weird. :P
And what about every teacher before that? Oh god o.o
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It's a trivial annoyance, but using IRL languages in RP kind of breaks immersion for me. We are roleplaying humans who are a minimum of twenty plus millennia into the future. None of us have ever seen France, Japan or Scandinavia and yet here we are paraphrasing directly from those languages, all of which by this point in time would be deader than Latin is today. Consider the changes some of the dominant languages have gone through in a mere fraction of that time - over the last 500-750 years for instance.
Yeah, we use modern English too, and that's because we're not really in capsuleers in a remote galaxy where Earth is at best a myth so it's hypocrisy on my part and irony rolled up in one I suppose. Still an annoyance though.
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It's a trivial annoyance, but using IRL languages in RP kind of breaks immersion for me. We are roleplaying humans who are a minimum of twenty plus millennia into the future. None of us have ever seen France, Japan or Scandinavia and yet here we are paraphrasing directly from those languages, all of which by this point in time would be deader than Latin is today. Consider the changes some of the dominant languages have gone through in a mere fraction of that time - over the last 500-750 years for instance.
Yeah, we use modern English too, and that's because we're not really in capsuleers in a remote galaxy where Earth is at best a myth so it's hypocrisy on my part and irony rolled up in one I suppose. Still an annoyance though.
I'm ashamed to say this, but English is my only language. I am from Canada so I should at least learn French, but in any case.
Yes you are spot on when you point out that any of the languages spoken by EVE characters would have scarcely any connection with the languages of long forgotten Terra. The differences between Quebecois and Parisian are quite distinct, with only 400 years separating them.
Americans and Canadians have the same accents that the British had 400 years ago, and of course the dialects between the two are different enough to scarcely be recognizable in some cases. 'Boot and bonnet' instead of 'Hood and trunk', 'Lorry' instead of truck. 'Lift' instead of elevator, and so on. This difference in accents occurs in every CITY in England, and in at least six distinct linguistic regions in English speaking North America. There are also class distinctions too, with Middle class people sounding different than working class people, for example.
Middle English is unrecognizable, and looks more like German (since English is a Germanic language). Old English is also completely unrecognizable. Then of course, there's all of the borrowing (stealing) of words from other languages such as Gaelic, Norse, French, Italian and so on.
Cockneys have their own 'Theive's cant', which is a way for them to speak about illegal activities openly without people knowing what they are talking about. Teenagers do the same thing with slang.
In my former corporation, everyone spoke English even though it was a European (Dutch) corporation. Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Russians, and Japanese all spoke English and wrote English almost faultlessly. It just seems that English is the language of commerce.
I would sometimes see Russian Cyrillic words and imagine that it was written in 'Minmatar'. This changed of course when a fellow Amarrian corpie who spoke with a Russian accent came on the voice comms. Then I pretended to myself that he was from a more remote part of the Amarrian empire.
As far as language evolution goes, I remember seeing a movie about astronauts working at the space station. The fact that they live in a completely artificial and electro-mechanical environment means that they have developed an Engineering jargon comprised mostly of acronyms as names for parts or procedures. The messages are brief and to the point, and use radio protocols. These radio protocols, for military, marine, and CB radio, have only been around for a few decades. Yet they are already a part of our language.
e.g. Astronauts: 'Number 1 do you copy? Need the EFT on the PB stat.'
Military: "This is Bravo Alpha Delta, do you copy over?" RGR. "Request position over"
CB: "Breaker one nine, breaker one nine! This is steel wheel. I see disco lights on the Eye nineteen, so back down on the back hammer on the back slide. Over." "10-4 I read you. Over and out."
It's kind of ironic, because EVE players have also developed a very similar 'Fleetspeak' capsuleer jargon of their own which is a lot like the one that Astronauts developed (DPS, POCO, POS, and so on).
It's interesting that the word 'okay' was invented by NASA, but has fallen into common use today.
Consider also, that texting over the phone and tweets have significantly changed our written language in as little as perhaps five years. When I was in high school, the only person who would write something like 'Ha-P 2 C U!' would be Prince of Purple rain fame. Today, it has become a new kind of texting language.
So, in the spirit of languages such as the Caldari sounding 'Cityspeak' in Blade Runner ("A mish-mash of Spanish, Japanese, German, what have you"), I would imagine that capsuleers would eventually speak to each other in a technical jargon which would look and sound like three to four lettered words with numbers, almost like an API code.
Why? Well there's a lot more of a need for advanced math and quick scientifically accurate information in a high tech space environment than there would be for jabbering and flowery poetry and prose.
(example "EGYH-223 GOB-12? Ovr." *beep* Rgr! XO 9er 9er RERG VAP GRST. Ovr. *beep*")
Interestingly, Chinese is sort of like this in that it is comprised largely of phonemes (letter pair sounds, AH, OH, BE and so on) that are combined in different intonations distinguished from each other by tone, like musical notes.
There is also a language in India that is almost purely mathematics. If you learn to communicate in this language, you will also learn to be an expert mathematician.
Presumably, as capsuleers we would be spending most of our time in our pods and possibly in fleet as well, so we would probably ALL speak this jargon language regardless of our racial heritage. As we are men and women of action, conversation with non-Capsuleers would be short and blunt. (Dave here. Need help. Stuck in Amamake. Gate camp.")
I remember reading 'The Lovers' by Philip Jose Farmer (a very 'Amarr like' society BTW) about a man who called himself a 'JOAT', or 'Jack of all trades'. In the highly technological information based world of the future, what this meant was that he was a Linguist who specialized in being able to translate forms of jargon. The rocket scientist could now speak to the warp scrambler technician and understand one another.
So I can somewhat imagine a linguist on EVE doing something like this. The languages of EVE are so diverse and numerous, that even translating the jargon of technicians would be a profession in itself. Of course there would be universal translators, but there are so many instances where people don't want to be understood, nuances in meaning, double entendres and so forth that I can see the need for a creative polyglot to help program or correct them.
I think it's interesting what the linguist Noam Chompsky said about language. "There are as many languages on the planet as there are people." I'm not sure if this includes stuff like whale song and bird calls, but chickens have over 30 different types of clucks to communicate things with their brood of chicks.
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The important part of this issue is simple:
There s a glossary for the words thatcaldariwill use in Napaani
IfI pick some random language and say it's "ancient bits of Khanid' people will scream bullshit - lore states FLAT that the Khanid no longer have any language. Unles I wanna say we do, so to stop me, ppl will scream bullshit.
So im stuck with Amarrian.
Ok.
If I ever use a word that I want to adhere speciically to something, I will do something like this:
"I do not think that this should be made known, it would be unwise." ((Arista uses an Imperial Amarrian word for unwise, which translates more specifically as roughly as "to be unspoken unto / be be bad form to speak it to a priest"))
This allowss for me to "use another language" while also accounting for the universal translators on the summir translating it with OOC exposition.
Me ICly tapping on my Neopad and muttering "Translator's broken" every time someone picks a laguage of a flavor they like makes the OTHER PLAYER seem more singled out and eeeek, if eeek can be used as a descriptive term of "ugh god someone is going to make me explain and damnit this shit is makign me look special snowflake and that was NEVER THE POINT,but shit,im fucked now."
It is an identically parallell issue to how I want to punch everyone who says "what's a cat?"
LETS ALL PRETEND WE ALL HAVE CATLIKE SHIT ON OUR PLANETS OR PLANETS WE'VE HEARD OF, PLEASE.
And lets lets universal translators WORK. You can make some words and *make a glossary available* forflavor, pick some RL words - *make a glossary available* .. just dont make people have to get a PhD in linguistsic OUT OF CHARACTER to make up for the fact someone doesnt want to achknowledge that universal transaltor is universal.
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I borrow words from Old Church Slavic, Icelandic, or the various Baltic languages, though I've pretty much abandoned any actual "Sebbie" words in use save for "hviða" which is just "Hi!". I tend to lean on Sami and pagan Slavic mythology for my ramblings on religion. I use animals in my stories like salmon, and mink, and caribou, because hey, these are things people can all imagine.
I don't know what a snorfbortz, kee lumper, or riffle swiftfish look like; neither does anyone else. I try to keep my stories beneath 2 pages, and would very much rather not explain what an animal is, or looks like, etc; a skadi is a snow leopard (and this, essentially becoming PF, is the work of multiple people, not just me!) About all I'm willing to do.
I have a hard enough time writing stories about shamanic religions and tribal societies for an audience of people unfamiliar with those things. I don't want to make it harder by having to explain all of their language or what animals they use to pull their caravans and so on.
Hviða works. Other than that? I guess just imagine Latvorussoicelandic if you want... yep! That's what it sounds like to me!
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This thread is making Noam Chomsky smile. Look how happy he is!
(http://aviewfrommybalcony.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/noam-chomsky.gif)
Linguistics' badass grandpappy is pleased
EDIT Also, I added a poll for great victory. ClicketyVote now!
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I've thought a bit about the conflict between universal translators and people using non-english words, thus making the universal translator not universal at all and/or making it appear as if the speaker could partially deactivate the translator of the listener, which does not make sense.
At first I thought "Yeah, it does not make a lot of sense to talk Napaani because of the translators, and I dislike that aspect, but I like the flavour it brings."
Then I realized I would rather have the omnipresent, ever active, universal translators nerfed in the canon than people not using flavoured language. I prefer to have translators as flawed as translate.google and not working instantaneously and active all the time.
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I think my point is, if I can make thepoint again, if there is going to be flavor, at least list it somewhere on a menu.
That's sort of what backstage is for, if not EVE's wiki, cause who cares about the wiki. ;) ........../o/
Random hello's and word-attachments that peopel can guess are honorifics or insults is one thing.
Nei wa obanei en wa'adrojan, i obanei ney voy challa'elem, and what the fuck good is that going to do? Now I need to teach someone else the entire mechanics of a 120 root word / 250 full word language I made up with some friends?
:/
((I [say/speak aloud] implied "to you" with/using "say-noble"[the proper noble language, the word of the true People], and you have no "head-light/illumination"(no understanding) ...))
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Even listing it somewhere. The amount of people that are going to look it up is almost nil. That is why Napaani, in my opinion, never worked well. As soon as people moved beyond 'hi,' 'bye,' 'foreigner,' nobody is going to go look it up no matter how conveniently it is listed elsewhere.
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Hi, bye Foreginer, coworker, friend, teacher (and 2 of those might be the same word). That's all the Napaani I know.
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I really love them out of game as lore themselves. Amarad, Napanii, etc.
I just think they don't really have their place ICly ingame, but in stories.
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I really love them out of game as lore themselves. Amarad, Napanii, etc.
I just think they don't really have their place ICly ingame, but in stories.
Beyond greetings and the occasional label for an object or animal or a concept (the word "heiian" comes to mind here for that last one), this is how I tend to look at it.
Greetings I tend to give leeway for in particular because in real life we often borrow or co-opt greetings from other languages even in general use. As an example, how often have you heard people who are otherwise speaking English use "Ciao" or "Hola" or "Sayonara" or another hello/goodbye equivalent rather than the English words? I'd wager it to be pretty often, at least in a lot of parts of the US.
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Mae fy hofrenfad yn llawn llyswennod. Ti'n siarad Cymraeg?
Ydw, d'win siarad Cymraeg!
Nid oes unrhyw lyswennod yn fy hofrenfad!
I agree that the universal translator should take care of most things, but I don't mind the odd word here or there where the meaning is obvious because of context. I wouldn't like to have to tab out to look up words in the middle of a conversation, it spoils the flow.
Greetings I tend to give leeway for in particular because in real life we often borrow or co-opt greetings from other languages even in general use. As an example, how often have you heard people who are otherwise speaking English use "Ciao" or "Hola" or "Sayonara" or another hello/goodbye equivalent rather than the English words? I'd wager it to be pretty often, at least in a lot of parts of the US.
Sure, I hear this sort of thing everyday in work, and the context is easy to understand.
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Thing is, modern speech doesn't use only words that is genuine to the language the conversation is held in. It's quite obvious that phrases like "Sic semper tyrannis" carry a meaning that is not conveyed by a litteral translation and would need some explaining to do in a non-literal 'translation'. Which is why it's nowadays used as a standing phrase, in latin, even though people rarely speak latin anymore. It's something I notice oftentimes with german words in the english language. While 'verboten' translates relatively nicely to 'prohibited' or some such words, the connotation is slightly different because it is borrowed from german. It's a well known effect, as the proverb "Omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina." documents.
So, I think it wouldn't make sense that a translator would be able to circumvent magically such situations. (Of course, though, we might all sound in translation by the translator like the Elcor in Mass Effect. - [Sadly:] I wouldn't be exhilarated by that, though.)
Also, putting in the odd word is simply a way of creating a certain flavour. The use of a Napaani greeting makes a lot of things clear with a simple, single word. It's a way to express the way our characters speak in a way that relying solely on proper english words, phrases and sentences wouldn't allow.
Tl;dr: Oftentimes it doesn't merely matter what our chars say, but also how they say it.
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Late to the thread, but here goes.
I honestly don't care.
Maybe it's because Amarr never had that much of a push to use a language to the level of Napanii, but while I do not get particularly excited about creating a language to RP with it doesn't annoy me either. I simply opt out of it - while others may choose to use their language-ized greetings and names, I just stick with normal english ones. So far, I've never been accused of being rude IC or anything for not using the special language, and I'm perfectly happy to give the people who do like that kind of thing the same respect.
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Ché was once in a club, and provoked an attack from a drunk sebbie. Another minnie, part of the management, confronted the sebbie with about her behaviour and demanded she apologize to me. This was mostly done in Irish, which I asume to be minnie-speak or some kind of clan speak.
The fact that I could not easily understand what was said, contributed to Ché's growing sense of not quite being able to get along with the matari for some reason (he seemed to piss them off, particularly the women) ...and not being welcomed by them.
This sense is still present, although these days it's mostly brought to the surface when dealing with Ava. :cube:
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Mae fy hofrenfad yn llawn llyswennod. Ti'n siarad Cymraeg?
Ydw, d'win siarad Cymraeg!
Nid oes unrhyw lyswennod yn fy hofrenfad!
You have done well... in recognition I present you with this Welsh Rarebit. Dine heartily.
(http://www.heraldscotland.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/400xY/cheesetoast.jpg)
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Thing is, modern speech doesn't use only words that is genuine to the language the conversation is held in. It's quite obvious that phrases like "Sic semper tyrannis" carry a meaning that is not conveyed by a litteral translation and would need some explaining to do in a non-literal 'translation'. Which is why it's nowadays used as a standing phrase, in latin, even though people rarely speak latin anymore. It's something I notice oftentimes with german words in the english language. While 'verboten' translates relatively nicely to 'prohibited' or some such words, the connotation is slightly different because it is borrowed from german. It's a well known effect, as the proverb "Omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina." documents.
So, I think it wouldn't make sense that a translator would be able to circumvent magically such situations. (Of course, though, we might all sound in translation by the translator like the Elcor in Mass Effect. - [Sadly:] I wouldn't be exhilarated by that, though.)
Also, putting in the odd word is simply a way of creating a certain flavour. The use of a Napaani greeting makes a lot of things clear with a simple, single word. It's a way to express the way our characters speak in a way that relying solely on proper english words, phrases and sentences wouldn't allow.
Tl;dr: Oftentimes it doesn't merely matter what our chars say, but also how they say it.
That's a good point.