“To showxa lang belta, keyá?” (You speak Belter, right?)
“Belter Creole, also simply known as Belter (Belter Creole: lang belta), is a constructed language developed by the linguist and polyglot Nick Farmer for The Expanse television series. In the story's universe, it is spoken by Belters, the inhabitants of the asteroid belt and the moons of outer planets of the Solar System”
“As some of our actors were from British backgrounds, I took the vocalized /l/ we hear at the ends of words like feel, where the /l/ comes out like the vowel ‘oo’, and which is found in many working-class South of England. I added a glottal reinforcement to final stop consonants /p, t, k/, as we hear in Cantonese accents, which was perhaps one of the most effective strategies for creating a distinctive sound. The change of /tr-/ clusters to “ch-” and /dr-/ to “j”, is a feature that I’d once heard a linguist argue was on the cards for the future of English! These all gave Belter-accented English a distinctive quality that reminded people of many accents, not just one, so one felt like they couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was.”
Wówtebuk: Lang Belta erefo Lang Ingelish (PDF)
| Lang Belta | Lang Ingelish | |
| bap kuxaku | airlock | Literally, “vacuum door, space door”. |
| owkwa kaka | coffee | owkwa + kaka, literally “shit water”, from the low quality of coffee available in the Belt. |
| kaka owkwa | diarrhea | kaka + owkwa, literally “water shit”. |
| mesa gang eletisi | circuit board | Literally, “electric circuit board”. |
| kaka felota | (vulgar, slang) bullshit | Literally, “floating shit”, from the idea that, in case of a toilet malfuncion in space in microgravity, the feces from the toilet would float in the air. |
| fash da losh | speed of light | |
| fo xalte gut | maintainence | Literally, “for/to keep good”. |
| fo sémpere | permanent, eternal, always, forever | Literally, “for eternity”. |
| bosmang kapawu | ship's captain, pilot in command | Literally, “ship boss”. |
“Kowl mang fong beref im im ferí unte eka […]. Imalowda pensa unte sensa we gut unte we mal. Unte im mogut fo manting du wit sif asilik beratna unte sésata.” (Article 1 of the UDHR in Belter Creole)