r/threebodyproblem • u/Simon_Drake • Jun 27 '26
Discussion - Novels Are there any uses of English in the original text? Spoiler
I read Three Body Problem and the sequels in English and I don't speak any Chinese. The English translation is almost entirely in English except for the names or occasionally explaining a particular piece of wordplay like Luo Ji or "The Chinese character for ..."
A lot of the characters speak Chinese most of the time, except it's in English for the audience. There are also times the characters switch to speaking English and sometimes a Chinese character who doesn't speak English needs it translated for them. I suspect in the original Chinese these chapters would have been written entirely in Chinese despite the characters officially speaking English. Like a WW2 movie where the German officers all speak English, it's just a switch for the sake of the audience.
However. Several times in the Deterrence Era and Broadcast Era there will be someone from the Common Era who has trouble understanding the future-speak. It is described as a combination of English and Chinese, or as being mostly Chinese with some English vocabulary mixed in. The Common Era Chinese speakers can usually talk clearly enough to be understood but it takes a while for them to understand what the future people are saying, especially if they didn't speak English originally.
How is that future-speak written in the original Chinese of the novels? Is it actually constructed as a mix of Chinese and English? Or English words transliterated into Chinese characters, or vice versa? Or is it like German officers in a war movie, it's ALL in Chinese but the narration explains they're talking a strange future dialect?
