Star Trek: 10 Things We Now Know About The Breen

Until recently, the Breen have always spoken Breen; their eminently recognisable tinny "shrillness" was never translated for the viewer. With the right adjustments to the universal translator, however, so it could handle the syntax, the Breen language could be understood by the characters around them. Those characters would then reply in what sounded to us like Federation Standard, a story device that was not without its comedic moments (in the war room on Cardassia Prime, in particular).

"It appears to be a simple Breen nursery rhyme," Odo says via holographic transmission to Captain Sisko on the Defiant in For the Uniform. "[It's] a heterophonic, five-line verse," he continues. "Metrical analysis shows an alternating tetrameter and pentameter structure." We might have different definitions of simple, Odo!! Odo's poetry recital for Sisko was, in fact, the first time we'd heard Breen spoken (unless you count the grunts and groans of soldiers being shot by Kira and Dukat).

When it came to creating the iconic Breen sound, which would feature prominently in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's seventh season, producer Ira Steven Behr noted in the Deep Space Nine Companion that they decided to give the species,

voices that really grate on the audience. Like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music album, which is basically two hours of feedback, guaranteed to drive you insane.

In fact, Behr suggested that the postproduction sound team listen to the album whilst they were devising the "alien electronic crackle".

It's worth noting that, so far, L'ak has primarily spoken Federation Standard in season five of Star Trek: Discovery. In Mirrors, L'ak also asked his uncle to "speak her [Moll's] language," and the latter did then switch from Breen to Standard (i.e. English). For now, however, pretty much all we know about Breen is rhymes and metal machines.

For the very first time, in the episode Erigah, we heard out-loud the universal translator's rendering of Breen into Federation Standard, as Captain Burnham and Admiral Vance were listening to the transmission from the approaching Breen dreadnought in the ready room.

Later, when Primarch Ruhn appears in giant holographic head form at Federation HQ, his Breen speech is also translated into English by the computer (although with someone at the controls). However, when Starfleet and Breen meet face to… bucket head in Erigah, Ruhn employs one of his own soldiers as an interpreter. President T'Rina then goes on to point out quite the mistranslation on said interpreter's part, which would suggest she has a significant understanding of the Breen language and/or was listening to the universal translator. Ruhn, caught out, then starts to speak English.

The rest we do know about the Breen language is all pretty much still rhymes and metal machines.