[dghf]

Wouldn't it break the illusion if Klingons and Dothraki just happened to speak a real Earth language?

And Belter is meant to be an English-based creole, reflecting the in-book/in-show history of the Belters as the descendants of speakers of several different languages who needed a lingua franca.

[nobody9999]

>And Belter is meant to be an English-based creole, reflecting the in-book/in-show history of the Belters as the descendants of speakers of several different languages who needed a lingua franca.

Heinlein did something similar with the Luna patois in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

I'm sure it's been done many times, both in literature and in fact.

[kergonath]

> Wouldn't it break the illusion if Klingons and Dothraki just happened to speak a real Earth language?

Would it matter? None of the characters are supposed to speak English in-universe either.

[dghf]

But implied translation into the language of the audience is a long-standing convention. We don't watch Ben Hur or Spartacus or I, Claudius and wonder why the Romans are all speaking English instead of Classical Latin.

But it might jar to hear a group of aliens natively speaking Dutch, for example. (Unless it's a Dutch film for a Dutch audience, of course, in which case it might equally jar to hear them speaking English.)

[kergonath]

It was commonly done at the time by having people with different accents. See the queen’s Latin trope. It would not be any weirder intrinsically, we’re just not used to it.

[dghf]

Well, that's fair.

> people with different accents

Done to (arguably) comic effect in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!, about the French Resistance in WW2, where English, French and German are all indicated by outrageous caricatures of the relevant accents.

[BerislavLopac]

You're forgetting the actual speakers of those languages.

[kergonath]

I am really not, and I am an actual speaker of a couple of those languages. The fact that we have to suspend disbelief and pretend the main characters are actually not speaking English is just a convention.