'quindozum', huh?

[fox]

So I'm watching SGA, which I picked up in the Barnes & Noble DVD sale thing, and I'm just reminded all over again how lucky the Atlantis expedition was that everyone in the Pegasus galaxy speaks English.  Including the Ancients, apparently.  But why didn't they write their language in Roman letters, if they had access to Latin -- which they must have, right, if they used the term "quindozum" to identify a Brotherhood of Fifteen?

Comments

[jgesteve.livejournal.com]

The concept is that Ancient is the language from which Latin evolved... not the other way around... hence Ancient Alphabet predates Latin Alphabet.

And Ancients as universal language source is no different than Star Trek's Universal Translator, Doctor Who's TARDIS gets inside your head and translates, or Hitchhiker's Babel Fish. It's just a necessary gimmick in order for the show to be intelligible for the majority of it. SG-1 at least has the Jaffa/Goa'uld having a separate language that requires translation.