primeideal

They actually did a lot better at the linguistics than most movies do. They didn't handwave it; the characters actually had to learn each other's languages. Sure, they sped it up a lot for entertainment, but fieldwork really does involve a lot of pointing, writing on a tablet, and saying things really slow. There's even a hint of how they start with basic terms -- "Abbott is death process" instead of "Abbott is dying." Once you get a generic word for "do / make / happen" you can verb any noun. And let's not forget the fabulous ruckus over "tool / weapon." That's exactly the kind of confusion that makes political translation a nightmare. Life is analog, language is digital, and different societies draw the lines in different places.