Ifyou speak English, you have a linguistic leg up on becoming an interstellartraveler. But there is a snag.

Everybodyknows that hopping between stars is tough, no matter how you cut time anddistance. Looking at the voyage today, such a trek might take multiplegenerations.

Atissue is how will Earthlings communicate with people returning from a 200-yearspace excursion?

Thatwas one question grappled with during a session on interstellar travel andmulti-generational space ships, held last month during an American Associationfor the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

In outerspace, nobody can hear Esperanto

Makinga space ark that's not just comfy, but also a sociological and behavioral"safe haven" for a cooped up couple-hundred folks is one tall order.

Away to keep everybody on an even keel is picking the space vehicle'svernacular. Forget any tongue-defying melding of languages, like Esperanto.That deliberately designed idiom has too shallow a pool of speakers. Such alanguage would not permit enough flexibility in choosing the space travelers inthe first place.

Thoseare a few talking points from Sarah Thomason, a professor of linguistics at theUniversity of Michigan.

Thomasontold the AAAS session-goers that English is the obvious and best choice, basingher decision on practicality.

"Englishreally did seem to be the no-brainer choice," Thomason said.

"Iknow it sounds jingoistic and that some would assume the choice is just anotherpiece of American arrogance. But I don't think there is much otherchoice," the language expert told SPACE.com in a phone interview.

Internationallanguage

WhyEnglish as the preferred language on a 200-passenger interstellar ship, slatedfor 200 years of round-trip star to star travel?

"Englishis, and has been for some decades now, the world's major internationallanguage. It is in exclusive use by air traffic controllers at internationalairports. Also, English is extensively used in higher education and businessall over the world," Thomason said. "For better or worse, it's theclosest thing we've got to international language todayeven the French recognizethat," she said.

Moreto the point: Out of 195 nations in the world in the year 2000, fifty-onenations had English either as their only official language or as one of two ormore official languages. Counting the United States, even though it has noofficial language, that makes fifty-two countries. Four other nations haveEnglish as a semi-official language, Thomason said.

"Itseems likely that volunteers for the space trip will be relatively welleducated. It might even be possible to find enough genetic diversity in theUnited States alone, given the country's melting pot history. That's not tomention the genetically diverse Native American peoples who were here beforeEuropean colonization, and who now speak mainly English," Thomason pointedout.

Butit would be easier, Thomason continued, to draw on space travel volunteers froma variety of countries. It wouldn't be hard to find genetically diverse Englishspeakers in such countries as Australia -- especially among the Aborigines --Singapore, Ghana, and India, in addition to the European Americans, NativeAmericans, and immigrants from different parts of the world, she added.

Translation oftime

Giventhe length of a cosmic commute between stars, one concern is what changes mightoccur to language over the passage of time. Thomason doesn't think there willbe major alterations. "Modern English speakers are able to readShakespeare, who wrote about 400 years ago," she noted.

Soreturning space travelers to Earth should be able to talk to English speakers onarrival.

However,changes in vocabulary may take place, because the travelers' environment willbe so different from any Earthly setting, she said. Also, there's the issue of"techno-speak" - words that will evolve as humans interact with thetechnology that keeps everyone alive and in ship shape condition.

"Forany interstellar space traveler, you'll have a whole New World onboard thatspace ship. People are going to have words for it that are going to bedifferent from anybody's language on Earth," Thomason said.

Spacetravelers may bond together as a unique community.

Theymight want to distinguish themselves linguistically from the people they leftbehind. This is not an unusual happening, Thomason said. The reasons are notlinguistic, but social. And with the English-speaking travelers coming fromvarious parts of the world with a variety of English dialects, the travelerswill undoubtedly establish their own dialect.

Slang blades

Thomasonsaid that children born on a star ship would create a unique dialect ofEnglish.

"Youcan call it 'space English' without being too fanciful," the linguistsaid. "You'll have teenagers growing up and inventing slang too. Thatslang is going to be different than slang used by teenagers on Earth. Somewords will stay in the language, but some won't. Slang can become old hatwhichis an old slang term in itself," she said.

"Thefirst generation of children born on the space vehicle will surely speak in adialect that differs from all of the parents' dialects, and from every otherdialect of English spoken on Earth," Thomason suggested.

Delvinginto matters of space travel is new ground for the University of Michiganprofessor of linguistics, she admitted.

"Myspecialty is looking at how languages influence each other, when they run intoeach other. So thinking about a totally isolated population like a space ship,and the issues of selecting the languageit was fun. It turned out to be nottotally trivial. You get some insight into limiting factors for things thatalso happen on Earth, in a less isolated context," Thomason noted.

Oneinteresting aside deserves more study.

Whathappens if an Earth-dispatched interstellar ship runs into an extraterrestrialcivilization?

"Atleast we know they won't be speakingEnglish," Thomason said.