H2G2 question

[coyotegoth]

Why *is* the phrase *Don't Panic" in English, of all languages, on the Guide's cover? Is it Sontrallassian for "How to simultaneously get laid and win the lottery in three easy lessons", or something?

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Another curious fact, slightly less well known among structural linguists than the preponderance of drinks called some variant of jynnan tonnyx, is that roughly 73% of all known planets in the Galaxy, regardless of their level of technology, have a phrase similar to "DON'T PANIC" in one of their extant languages, and all meaning roughly the same thing.

Most structural linguists have despaired of finding any cause for this, mostly because they're too drunk on jynnan tonnyx to look. That didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from using it as the basis of his bestselling God Doesn't Exist and He's Coming to Get You.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Nice :)