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In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor and other Asgardians don't appear to have visited the Earth for a considerable amount of time, certainly not after the English language was created.

Since there are have been no "recent" interactions between the humans and Asgardians, how are they able to understand and speak English?

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  • Translator microbes / Universal translator?
    – Valorum
    Jul 26, 2014 at 18:43
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    Heimdall is able to see all of the different realms. The Asgardians therefore have some method of contact.
    – Valorum
    Jul 26, 2014 at 18:55
  • @Richard They are superior. Why would they use so-called inferior's (human's) language?
    – Dilip Raj Baral
    Jul 26, 2014 at 19:55
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    I think the easiest answer is probably going to come from "Your ancestors called it magic, but you call it science. I come from a land where they are one and the same." aka translator microbes tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TranslatorMicrobes
    – Monty129
    Jul 26, 2014 at 22:52
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    Don't you mean how are humans able to speak Asgardian?
    – LCIII
    Jun 2, 2017 at 18:47

2 Answers 2

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In the comics, this is thanks to something they call:

All-Tongue or AllSpeak: "When Thor speaks with the All-Tongue anyone who hears him will hear him speak their native language in their hearts" (from Thor's wiki page)

In the absence of further information, it seems likely to assume the same is true of Marvel Movie Asgardians as well - though given the whole 'Our magic is just extremely advanced science' instead of 'we are actually godly beings' angle, it's also likely to assume that the AllSpeak ability stems from something different - the "tech" behind Movie-verse Allspeak might very well be some kind of translator microbes (or an invisible wearable computer "aura" perhaps)

(I knew of the All-Tongue idea as 'general knowledge' but I'm having hard time finding references to it, outside of that one place in wiki (which cites Thor #617) so I'm now unsure how common this idea really is. If anyone has better references please feel free to add.)

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  • Asguardians are not the only alien race that speaks English. Do they all speak in All-tongue?
    – user63741
    Mar 25, 2016 at 2:15
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    +1 Most of the species know Earth languages but it is canon that Asgardians have All-speak that translates any language to theirs and theirs to any language.
    – apollo
    Mar 25, 2016 at 7:17
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    Is there any "AllHear"? If a random guy speaks in his language, Thor can hear it as his own language?
    – Baby Man
    Jun 7, 2017 at 4:25
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They are the keepers of the universe. And study the places they rule over. So that explains why they might have the knowledge of English.

As far as why that seems to be the language they always use...... No clue.

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