Newsgroup message of June 14, 1997

Subject: Re: is there really a ferengi language

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>In the Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men", our favorite ferengi are
>transported back to mid-20th century earth. Their universal translators
>malfunction, and we get to hear what I believe is the first audible
>instance of the spoken ferengi language.

That's all I know about this as well. I thought the Ferengi language sounded pretty good, and I really liked how they made use of it. That is, the "little green men" came to Earth -- specifically the United States in the mid 20th Century -- and rather than speaking perfect mid 20th century American English like most invading outer space aliens do, they spoke something that the Earth people couldn't understand.

By incorporating the malfunction of the Universal Translators into the plot, they even acknowledged that, even back in the 24th Century, there is still a great deal of linguistic diversity and the potential for a lot of misunderstanding.

I don't know whether anyone at Paramount (or elsewhere) has actually documented the Ferengi language (that is, whether there's a word list or something like that).

There are, of course, a handful of Ferengi words we've heard in other episodes (such as "Nagus" and "DaiMon"), and a number of Ferengi names, but extended Ferengi speech is, I think, heard only in the "Little Green Men" episode.

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