A linguist on Arrival's alien language (2016)

Re:A linguist on Arrival's alien language (2016) by GenerocUsername on Monday March 27, 2017 @05:33PM (#13971988)

I can try to shine a light on this idiom.

Masala is a popular indian dish here in the US... so popular in fact that it is expected at any indian restaurant. Because of this, the term can be synonomous with 'run of the mill', 'standard', or even 'safe'.

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Re:A linguist on Arrival's alien language (2016) by setr on Monday March 27, 2017 @05:56PM (#13972177)

>Masala is a popular indian dish here in the US...

Huh? Masala just means the dish uses a bunch of spices (ie masala chai is just tea with cardamom, maybe pepper and cinnamon and other things depending on whose making).

I'm pretty sure regarding film its used to say a "standard movie" or even "boring", thats been "spiced" to taste better, with spices being a set of tropes that most people like.

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Re:A linguist on Arrival's alien language (2016) by prebrov on Monday March 27, 2017 @06:38PM (#13972463)

Haha, such an appropriate comment thread in a post about linguistics!

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Re:A linguist on Arrival's alien language (2016) by samstave on Monday March 27, 2017 @09:26PM (#13973234)

I prefer Alien Tikka Masala myself, with a side of xenophobiNaan.

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Re:A linguist on Arrival's alien language (2016) by devdas on Monday March 27, 2017 @08:38PM (#13973012)

Masala is a mixture of spices, or the liquid portion of the stew a dish is cooked in.

In this context, it would mean spiced up, or exaggerated for entertainment reasons.

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