Is English the official "Common" language in the MCU? (generic Doctor Strange spoiler

[ben-zayb]

A thought came to mind when a friend who's watching Doctor Strange asked me why everyone spoke English in Kamar-Taj. Of course, the notion wasn't really as absurd to me, considering the monks/sorcerers might as well be D&D casters, so I jokingly dismissed it with a simple "They can cast Tongues (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/tongues.htm)."

Now, though, I realize that Thor and GotG also has this "problem". How can Thor, who's so unfamiliar with modern human customs, and everyone else in the other non earth realms, be that fluent in modern English? And about the only person I can remember who doesn't speak English fluently in GotG is Groot.

Has Marvel given an explanation for this, or do we just assume that English is the Common language somehow?

[Cazero]

Probably the same reason most people speak english in a bazillion other fictions : audience convenience.

[BiblioRook]

Can't really speak for Asgardians or space people in general but at least in the case of the people in Kamar-Taj I wouldn't think knowing English would be really all that strange. Just generally in the real world people commonly pick up English and I imagine the people in Kamar-Taj know tons of other languages as well but spoke English because that's what Stange spoke.

But yeah, short answer is that it's mostly just for audience convenience. People tend not to be very into subtitles.

Although it's something of a stretch, at least in the case of Asgardians considering that they are 'gods' it could be possible that they speak something of a universal language which comes off simply as English because that's what the people he interacted with (and again, the audience) understood and presumably might change and adapt if he ended up in a non-English speaking country. I mean in the first Avengers movie Loki ended up in Germany and still got along well enough.

[Dragonexx]

I think that word of god is that for asgardians, they speak the "All-Tongue" which allows them to understand any language, and anyone who hears them speak hears it in their own language.

Also, people in other countries often learn at least some english as a second language.

The real reason of course is convenience for the audience.

[Rogar Demonblud]

During the arrest scenes in Guardians, one of the readouts lists a translation implant for Quill. Presumably, the others have some kind of universal translator as well.

Or babelfish are a lot more prevalent. Either way.

[Douglas]

During the arrest scenes in Guardians, one of the readouts lists a translation implant for Quill. Presumably, the others have some kind of universal translator as well.
Interesting. Of course, that raises the question of why English, a language from an unimportant planet that doesn't even have its own space travel (going to the moon doesn't really count) yet, is on the list of languages handled by such things.

Yes, Earth is actually very important, what with multiple Infinite Stones being stored there and various other recent events, but that seems to be all new developments that almost no one knew about before.

[Keltest]

Interesting. Of course, that raises the question of why English, a language from an unimportant planet that doesn't even have its own space travel (going to the moon doesn't really count) yet, is on the list of languages handled by such things.

Yes, Earth is actually very important, what with multiple Infinite Stones being stored there and various other recent events, but that seems to be all new developments that almost no one knew about before.

Unless "English" is just an extraterrestrial language that we claim we made up?

[An Enemy Spy]

Is Earth the point where Midgard connects to the Bifrost bridge? Because that would explain why it's so important on a large scale.

[Friv]

Interesting. Of course, that raises the question of why English, a language from an unimportant planet that doesn't even have its own space travel (going to the moon doesn't really count) yet, is on the list of languages handled by such things.

Yes, Earth is actually very important, what with multiple Infinite Stones being stored there and various other recent events, but that seems to be all new developments that almost no one knew about before.

I think that, at the point that your translation implant can handle numerous languages spoken by actual aliens, being able to translate a new language more or less on the fly isn't going to be that difficult.

Maybe the day that Yondu kidnapped Quill, he brain-scanned him, uploaded his primary language to their translator, and Quill's been using it ever since.

[GAZ]

Is Earth the point where Midgard connects to the Bifrost bridge? Because that would explain why it's so important on a large scale.

My understanding is that Earth=Midgard and that Asgard, Jotunheim, and the other Realms are physical places in the same MCUniverse. A couple of things bear this theory out. In the first Thor movie, Jane Foster says that Thor traveled across an Einstein-Rosen bridge, which connects two points on the same spacetime continuum. Then Thor: The Dark World had the portal battle finale. There, when Thor traveled to a different Realm, Mjolnir flew up into space to go to him. If he were in a separate dimension I would think the hammer would either just fall down, try to fly through a portal, or go poof into that dimension. Flying off into the universe only makes sense if Swartalfheim or Nifelheim or wherever is still in this universe. The stinger from Thor 2 showed that one of the Elders of the Universe and resident of deep space and Asgardians are mutually aware of each other. Agents of SHIELD does the same for the Kree. Knowing aliens doesn't make sense if the Asgardians would have to go through Earth and then across a greater Midgard-space to meet them.

[Rakaydos]

Concerning Dr Strange specifically, I caught a throwaway line that, at least in the MCU, the Ancient One is Celtic. She's older than the existence of English, but she would be familiar with the various mother tongues that formed it.

[Aedilred]

It is certainly the case that languages other than English exist and are spoken on Marvel Earth. See for instance the first Avengers movie where Black Widow is introduced with a conversation in [Slavonic language I'm not going to try to identify] and Bruce Banner was introduced among Indians speaking . If I remember rightly, the Wakandan characters spoke [another language that may or may not be a real one] when talking to each other in [i]Civil War, and only used English to speak to outsiders. The Winter Soldier's activation codes were in Russian. And out in the wider universe, the Dark Elves had their own language too. There are perhaps more subtitles in Marvel films than we give credit to.

Normally I think in cinema there's an understood convention that it's fine for characters to talk in English to each other even if that's not their native language in "real life"; given that the target audience and most actors will be English-speaking, anything else would be unnecessarily complicated. Subtitles tend to be used when a third language is introduced into the mix, or to make it clear that some characters don't understand each other. There is perhaps a slight inconsistency in that the Asgardians are depicted speaking English when at home but the Dark Elves aren't, but that is probably to identify the Dark Elves as alien and also, ironically, to get away from the presumption that English is a universal language.

I think the real reason for English being used so widely in the MCU is not so much for the convenience of the audience, who Marvel seem to reckon can handle at least a few subtitles, but so that characters are able to talk to each other. And once you've established that a character can speak English, you might as well have them speak it all the time unless there's a good narrative reason for them not to - even if it's not their first language.

[Hopeless]

Its English because that's the country The Doctor frequently visits given they have tea and strangely the only world that has a source of milk...:smalltongue:

The fact that no one remembers the babel fish is somewhat regrettable since its possibly the only sea life the English don't eat... :smalleek:

[Anonymouswizard]

Interesting. Of course, that raises the question of why English, a language from an unimportant planet that doesn't even have its own space travel (going to the moon doesn't really count) yet, is on the list of languages handled by such things.

I can see a couple of options:
1) Quill isn't actually speaking English. Sure, it's still his first language but he learnt a galactic language at some point after being kidnapped.
2) The translators don't have every language installed on them. Instead they have a selection of languages set by the user, and Quill happens to have English on his, and then they communicate with nearby translators to provide real time translation.
3) Enough wizards have teleported themselves to other planets that English has been added just in case you run across a human.


Yes, Earth is actually very important, what with multiple Infinite Stones being stored there and various other recent events, but that seems to be all new developments that almost no one knew about before.

I believe two Infinity Stones are being stored there, although only the Time Stone was intentional when they were first being hidden as far as I know. Earth is literally a backwater that has stumbled onto having a second Infinity Stone by Thor not wanting to kill The Vision and not knowing about the Time Stone being there.


The fact that no one remembers the babel fish is somewhat regrettable since its possibly the only sea life the English don't eat... :smalleek:

Now as an Englishman I am insulted. The only reason we don't have a specific dish for it is the lack of a steady supply. :smalltongue:

[Rogar Demonblud]

I believe two Infinity Stones are being stored there, although only the Time Stone was intentional when they were first being hidden as far as I know. Earth is literally a backwater that has stumbled onto having a second Infinity Stone by Thor not wanting to kill The Vision and not knowing about the Time Stone being there.

In the last decade four Infinity Stones have been on Earth, and a fifth was briefly in the hands of a human off-world. Considering we have no idea currently what's up with the sixth, I'd say 4.5 out of 5 makes us pretty important for some reason.

[DiscipleofBob]

My interpretation is that in the MCU, Earth is Midgard, and it's the only planet in the universe that is so. The other eight realms are alternate dimensions that run parallel to Earth. Odin's dominion expands to cover our planet and those eight other realms, we're simply not aware that the land we live on has been claimed by a realm we were completely unaware of until recently.

Asgardians showed up in ancient Scandinavia where they planted a flag, either made up a religion or told some stories we misconstrued as a religion, either way probably Loki's fault, that got misconstrued to what we currently think of as Norse mythology, and the Asgardians left us alone for a few millennia. Because last time Odin let some Asgardians over here they founded a religion.

They only stored one Infinity Stone ere in the form of the Cosmic Cube. The scepter with the Mind Gem was somehow acquired by Loki between Thor and showing up in Avengers, the one from Thor: Dark World was in another dimension, the one from GotG was on another planet, and true Eye of Agamotto was also technically in another dimension by being under the mystic purview of the sorcerers.

At least that was my interpretation so far.

[Friv]

Agents of SHIELD strongly suggested that the Nine Realms were actual other universes, when they had an episode with a guy who was dimension-fading between Earth and Muspelheim, but he could have been using normal portal powers.

[BRC]

Interesting. Of course, that raises the question of why English, a language from an unimportant planet that doesn't even have its own space travel (going to the moon doesn't really count) yet, is on the list of languages handled by such things.

Yes, Earth is actually very important, what with multiple Infinite Stones being stored there and various other recent events, but that seems to be all new developments that almost no one knew about before.
My personal theory is that Translation Convention was in full effect. Everybody was speaking some sort of generic space-common that Quill learned with the Ravagers.
Various pieces of slang were translated for our convenience.

The one exception was the song lyrics, which were nonsense to everybody except Peter.

When the Guardians crossover with the rest of the MCU, Peter is the only one who can speak English, and he does so with an outrageous accent for having spoken Space-common so much.

[Leewei]

As the subject implies, are the MCU movies only released in English? Or are they dubbed? (I seem to remember footage of Vin Diesel saying, "Soy, Groot!")

[BRC]

As the subject implies, are the MCU movies only released in English? Or are they dubbed? (I seem to remember footage of Vin Diesel saying, "Soy, Groot!")

That's not what the subject implies, but to answer your question, like most major motion picture releases, the MCU movies are all dubbed in a variety of languages for a worldwide release.

[Leewei]

That's not what the subject implies, but to answer your question, like most major motion picture releases, the MCU movies are all dubbed in a variety of languages for a worldwide release.

That being the case, English is only official "Common" if you're watching the movie un-dubbed.

[Rodin]

On the specific case of Dr. Strange, I think it's worth noting that on his way TO Kamar-Taj he asked directions by saying the name repeatedly and waving a map, which is pretty universal. For a group of ancient monks with headquarters in Kathmandu, Hong Kong (former British colony), London, and New York to also know English shouldn't be terribly surprising. Knowing a dozen languages is probably part of the training.

[Silver Swift]

They only stored one Infinity Stone ere in the form of the Cosmic Cube. The scepter with the Mind Gem was somehow acquired by Loki between Thor and showing up in Avengers, the one from Thor: Dark World was in another dimension, the one from GotG was on another planet, and true Eye of Agamotto was also technically in another dimension by being under the mystic purview of the sorcerers.

Sort of off-topic, but do we have an official confirmation of which of the infinity gems are which? The Eye of Agamoto is pretty clearly time and I think they referred to vision as having the mind stone explicitly in age of Ultron, but do we have any clear indications on the Tesseract, the Aether and whatever the one from GotG was called?

[Douglas]

The Tesseract is space, the Aether is reality, and the one in GotG is power. That leaves the soul stone as the only one left to reveal.

[Calemyr]

The use of English in Strange doesn't really surprise me. Besides a Celtic leader, besides English as a lingua franca, besides the simple "translated for your benefit" trope, two of the three sanctuaries they protect are in English speaking nations. They're going to have a lot of English exposure. And Strange is primarily an English speaker - even if he can speak any or all of the other languages, it's probably still the easiest language for him to learn in ("Can you read Sanskrit?" "No, but I'm fluent in Google Translate.").

The ravagers were almost certainly the ones who got Starlord his translator implant and likely taught him a more "useful" language, but since he's our perspective character we hear everything in the language he's most comfortable with. Even when he's not in the scene because... uh... it's complicated and I don't have time to talk to people who wouldn't understand anyway.