It is becoming harder and harder to imagine a world where communication is not simply a function of economics. Altera offers a kaleidoscope for linguistic diversity, not for the sake of driving peoples apart, but for celebrating us in all our own ways.

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Each language is an insulated world of difference. For every linguistic oddity sampled in science fiction, there is a language or language isolate that was the inspiration or source for its invention.

 

Language families in turn feature languages with shared innovations and suggest some form of cultural ties or ancestry. Conceptually, they chart linguistic evolution and can be helpful in thinking of degrees or latitudes of difference among languages. They also hint at cultural heritage and the oldest of origins.

 

To put things in perspective, there are more commonalities between Welsh and Sinhala—nearly a continent apart—than there is similarities between Basque and Spanish, which are geographically near and culturally similar in other ways. Language, as a cultural layer, is thus responsible for cultural ironies.​