Is the language of the TVA, He Who Remains, and all of the printed material in these places in English or Allspeak?

Question

Many years ago, I learned about Allspeak and how the Asgardians used Allspeak which was basically like a magical way that no matter how they spoke, it was translated into the vernacular of the person hearing them. I've always just assumed this was the case for any advanced civilization in the MCU, whether it was by magic or technology.

The TVA, however, is a bit odd. They have a lot of printed material which is obviously printed in English, and so did He Who Remains when he was demonstrating he knew what was happening up until that point.

Do we assume that this is allspeak, or is it English for some reason? Or is this the kind of thing we're not supposed to ask questions about?

Answer 1

I don't think Allspeak exists within the MCU, or at least, I don't see any clear evidence that it does. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thor mentioned that Groot (the language) was taught as an elective on Asgard.

ROCKET: You speak Groot?

THOR: Yes, they taught it on Asgard. It was an elective.

This suggests that he took classes in it, as a normal human might take classes in French or German. Whereas in the comics, the Allspeak works like the Universal Translator in Star Trek, where you just speak in your own language, and are heard by the person or people you're speaking to in theirs.

KID LOKI: What language are you speaking? You're not speaking French.

THOR: Neither are you. Are you?

KID LOKI: I don't understand.

THOR: You speak with the All-Tongue. Every man hears it as his native language.

_{Thor Vol 3 #617}

Also, in Loki Episode 1, Loki speaks in English to some Mongolians in the Gobi Desert, and they seemingly don't understand a word he's saying. He does speak Latin to people in Pompeii in Episode 2, but the very fact that we hear him vocalising his words in a different language -- rather than having his words magically translated, irrespective of what language he was speaking in -- again contradicts how the Allspeak is said to work in the comics.

The most logical conclusion to be drawn from the above evidence is that in the MCU, Asgardians have to take classes to learn other languages, and that they probably don't get around to learning all languages, such as Mongolian in Loki's case.

I see no reason to think it's any different within the TVA. In the scene in the church in Episode 1, Mobius is shown to speak French, and one of the Hunters states that he can speak every language on the timeline, implying that all TVA staff likely can.

MOBIUS [in French]: I'm sorry... my friend is an imbecile.

HUNTER U-92: Hey, yo!

HUNTER U-92 [in French]: I speak every language on the timeline too. Jackass.

But there's nothing preventing them from just learning all these languages. Mobius states that time passes differently within the TVA, and He Who Remains said more or less the same thing about the Citadel at the End of Time. So for all we know, these people are hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of years old, meaning they have plenty of time to learn as many languages as they want.

And again, the fact that we hear them vocally switching between different languages contradicts the way the Allspeak is said to work in the comics.

One other thing to note is that pretty much all the TVA staff we've seen -- including He Who Remains -- are seemingly human, and moreover American, if their accents are any indication. So while they may be capable of speaking any language on the timeline, their first language would presumably be English, and it therefore makes sense that they'd communicate with one another in English most of the time.

Answer 2

Spoilers for episode 6!

He Who Remains tells the Lokis: "Eons ago, before the TVA, a variant of myself lived on Earth in the 31st century." Therefore, it is quite plausible that the speech and text are English because that is the language He Who Remains used on Earth. It's a simple case of He Who Remains making the TVA use what he was comfortable with.

Answer 3

Here's my take on this. Asgardian magic is not 100% science since we know sorcery exists. Let's assume there are 2 powers, science and sorcery, and asgardian magic is a combination of both. We know they have technological machines like the rainbow bridge which replicates the bifrost, weapons, and airships. And the bifrost can also be summoned without said technology by using the power of the all father aka sorcery. As we know the rest of the galaxy uses technological translators, asgard maybe using a sorcery equivalent, the all speak. This explains how thor and loki could speak to humans in the first avengers movie. But like all translators, they don't necessarily translate grammar or nuances. The guardians' couldn't understand groot at first as it was only translating the words which were i am groot. This is why Thor had to learn groot in school and also did not understand the flying monkeys reference. "Shaka, when the walls fell" moments, get it? The only plothole is how humans were able to understand non asgardian aliens because humans newer got the universal translator. I refuse to believe that the universal translator works 2 ways even when one party do not have it.

Now back to the TVA. He who remains is from earth. It's only natural he would recruit humans for the TVA and everything is in english. The evidence that everything is in english is Victor Timely got his hands on the TVA handbook and was able to read it. Seeing all the wacky techs in the TVA and how they were able to easily overpower loki, it's safe to assume that they were all enhanced to the level of argardians and made immortal. He who remains also have tech to brainwash and erase the entire TVA's memory, so it's not difficult for him to to also download the knowledge of all the languages into their minds.