Language in DB

[SSJ2FutureGohan]

Did anyone else ever find it weird that there's a "universal language" in Dragon Ball. Like people on Earth have no idea what Planet Vegeta or Planet Namek are, yet everyone on all 3 of those planets somehow all know the same language. Any IIU explanations? No OOU like "bad writing" or "plot"

[Herms]

Daizenshuu 7 explains that people throughout the DB universe have a "universal official language" (宇宙公用語) that allows them to communicate without trouble, in addition to the various other languages that exist. Sauzer from DBZ movie 5 has the bizarre extra background detail about being able to speak over 7,000 different languages, so going by that there's at least that many languages in the DB universe.

Of course, the guides don't elaborate on how this standard language originated or why it's even used on planets like Earth, which don't have contact with other planets. Heck, even if Earth started out speaking exactly the same language as ever other planet in the universe, after a few centuries cut off from everyone else they would probably develop a unique language through simple language drift. I actually heard recently that Koreans who escape from North Korea have to take language courses in order to adapt to South Korean society, because after more than 50 years of division the type of Korean spoken in the two countries has diverged so much (largely due to South Korea adopting a lot of foreign words). So realistically even Piccolo might have a hard time speaking Namekian with Dende, to say nothing of Earthlings trying to communicate with Saiyans or whatever.

But we also know that even the DB gods speak the "universal official language" among themselves, and the Gods of Creation like Kaioshin are supposed to be the ones responsible for creating life on the various planets throughout the universe. So it could be that they just hard-wire this standard language into all sentient life-forms, so that everyone can communicate. It'd certainly be a pain in the ass if the gods couldn't even understand what people were saying. And imagine the confusion you'd get in the afterlife if everyone had their own separate language. So yeah, my guess is that the gods created and maintain this common language for their own personal convenience. People can create their own local languages too (like with the Namekians and whatever weird writing system the scouters seem to use), but everyone also has the standard language programmed into their heads, like a sort of instinct, so that it never changes from generation to generation.

[Kakacarrottop]

Ironically just a couple of days ago i was watching an old Ocean dub episode (i think it was Ep 35 or 34) where Freeza was talking to a Namekian elder about his "native tongue" when he & his cronies were trying to get a Namekian Dragon Ball password or something. To me that sort of indicated there may be a few languages out there in the DB world considering Freeza has encountered numerous alien races before. I think this may have been a dub only thing? Correct me if i'm wrong.

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

Namekians do have their own language. Remember Piccolo and Kami talking to each other in the 23 budokai? Also that spaceship in Yanzabit Highlands was programmed in a different language that only Popo and Kami could understand.

[Herms]

Ironically just a couple of days ago i was watching an old Ocean dub episode (i think it was Ep 35 or 34) where Freeza was talking to a Namekian elder about his "native tongue" when he & his cronies were trying to get a Namekian Dragon Ball password or something. To me that sort of indicated there may be a few languages out there in the DB world considering Freeza has encountered numerous alien races before. I think this may have been a dub only thing? Correct me if i'm wrong.

It's not too far off from the original: in the scene where Freeza and co. attack Dende's village, Muri starts out speaking to Freeza in Namekian, but Freeza cuts him off and tells him to instead "speak with words which we can understand", since he knows they can. At which point Muri starts speaking "normally" (so Japanese in the Japanese version, English in the Viz manga, French in Glenat, etc). It sounds more like the idea of a "universal standard" language than Freeza's own particular native tongue, although arguably Freeza might consider the universal standard as his native language. After all, Bulma and everyone else on Earth speaks that same standard language, and they probably consider it normal language rather than some galactic standard, since they don't have dealings with aliens.

There is a Funi dub exclusive bit where Freeza tells Goku "let's get down to business" in his native language. In the original this line was just Freeza laughing.

Namekians do have their own language. Remember Piccolo and Kami talking to each other in the 23 budokai? Also that spaceship in Yanzabit Highlands was programmed in a different language that only Popo and Kami could understand.

The spaceship's language was also Namekian. That was the whole plot point: Bulma realizes that the funky language God and Piccolo were speaking at the tournament must have been Namekian, at which point Popo says that God taught him that language too, so Popo is the only one who can operate the Namekian spaceship. There's some talk of Bulma learning Namekian from Popo so she can operate the ship, but eventually they instead just convert the spaceship's language controls over to the "universal standard" language.

[SSJ2FutureGohan]

Namekians do have their own language. Remember Piccolo and Kami talking to each other in the 23 budokai? Also that spaceship in Yanzabit Highlands was programmed in a different language that only Popo and Kami could understand.

Yes, I realize that, but they also know the same language as people on other planets, despite never coming in contact with them.

[Hitiro]

Considering that planets should have a guardian and retainers that come from heaven to serve them I would imagine that the retainers are the ones that spread the standardised language through the galaxies. The universal language probably originated from the heavens.

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

The way I see it, English is the "common tongue" much like how in real life English and Spanish are the 2 most spoken languages on our planet, yet most countries around the world have their own languages that are native to them.

I assume intergalactic travelers don't want to learn thousands of languages.

I doubt the majority of people in real life travelling to 10 different countries want to learn 10 different languages just to enjoy their stay.

[DerekPadula]

Throwing a couple cents in, I believe that in Chapter 1 of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, Jaco says that he speaks every language in the universe. And as Herms noted, there are at least 7,000 of them.

[singsing]

The way I see it, English is the "common tongue" much like how in real life English and Spanish are the 2 most spoken languages on our planet, yet most countries around the world have their own languages that are native to them.

I assume intergalactic travelers don't want to learn thousands of languages.

I doubt the majority of people in real life travelling to 10 different countries want to learn 10 different languages just to enjoy their stay.

I'm fairly certain Mandarin Chinese dwarfs both English and Spanish, but otherwise fair point

[Kamiccolo9]

The way I see it, English is the "common tongue" much like how in real life English and Spanish are the 2 most spoken languages on our planet, yet most countries around the world have their own languages that are native to them.

I assume intergalactic travelers don't want to learn thousands of languages.

I doubt the majority of people in real life travelling to 10 different countries want to learn 10 different languages just to enjoy their stay.

I'm fairly certain Mandarin Chinese dwarfs both English and Spanish, but otherwise fair point

Mandarin is spoken by more people than English and Spanish combined.
Granted, most of these people are actually in China. English and Spanish are much more widespread.

[Herms]

Probably also worth noting that in a few places Toriyama has commented on how he gave Vegeta's attacks mostly English names (Big Bang Attack, Final Flash, Power Ball) because he felt it suited Vegeta's character, while Piccolo gets a lot of fancy Japanese attack names (Makankosappo, Bakuriki-Maha, Gekiretsu-Kodan) because he's a classy guy. Besides Vegeta's attacks, the Saiyans and Freeza's army in general use a lot of English terms (Scouter, Medical Machine, Attack Ball). Naturally this distinction mostly drops out when the series is translated into English.