Speaking as someone who Doesn't know how the show is going to end, and is approaching the end of season two, here are my potentials for how the Odo's Origins plot might end, ranked roughly from most to least likely;
- the changelings are found. They are a very cool and respected society of advanced aliens in Gamma and all the legends are true. Odo gets closure and catharsis and feels better about himself but chooses to stay with his friends on ds9.
- same thing as above, but Odo goes with them and leaves the show. This is my least favourite, personally.
- nuance. The changelings are an okay society but they have their own problems just like Bajor or whatever. There's a point made about how statistically no society is perfect. Odo goes with them to help clear up whatever societal issue that is, and leaves the show.
- same as above, but he still stays (less likely.)
- we never find the changelings because the show ended before it wanted to end
- we never find the changelings and there's a point made about how Odo doesn't need to know who they are to know who he is.
- we find the changelings. They're worse than Cardassians. My personal favourite because can you fucking imagine
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Okay SO so so. I haven't seen TNG or Voyager yet but idgaf here are some thoughts and headcanons about languages and the Universal Translator in ds9. DO NOT CONFIRM OR DENY ANY OF THIS I am most of the way through s2 I want zero spoilers this is just headcanoning ok!!
First off Sisko and Jake definitely learnt Bajoran. For one, I think the Federation would have a chance to recognise that relying so heavily on a piece of technology to communicate could be dangerous if that technology should break down, so they heavily recommend all Federation personell who are stationed in places like ds9 learn the local language. Sisko conscientiously did, and Jake got a hang of it both in school and from Nog, who has a basic hang of the spoken version. So while Sisko and Jake start out communicating with Kira, Odo and any Bajoran officials through the UT, they eventually switch into proper Bajoran. Considering the show vaguely implies that Sisko is? Or at least lived in New Berlin (which is technically on the moon) for a while I have no idea if he and Jake actually speak English, or if it's like, German. I'll put a question mark after mentions of English just to be sure...
Kira, of course, originally refuses to learn English(?) (or whatever our Federation people speak) on purpose, but picks up a few words whether she likes it or not. Having been a freedom fighter without access to a UT probably also led to her picking up a lot of Cardassian in her efforts to fight back against the occupation. Also, I bet Cardassian as a language is also going to have an impact on Bajoran as a language whole. At the very least, there would have to be a conscious effort to prevent that for it not to happen.
Rest under cut cos it's long;
Speaking of Odo, Bajoran is technically his first proper language, but he speaks with an unidentifiable accent and sounds a little bit like he's in the Bajoran equivalent of a 19th century noir detective novel. The UT interprets this as a British accent when translating to English(?). He probably also understands Cardassian if I understand him at all, having lived with them for years. (Also, he semi-canonically took it upon himself to learn both written and spoken Ferengi, probably for the express purpose of spying on Quark, so jot that down.)
Similarly, Curzon Dax was the kind of person who learnt to speak a lot of languages, but not write them. Klingon among them, but he also might've picked up some Bajoran at some point. Jadzia Dax completed upon his knowledge, and since she loves people she loves learning spoken languages too. She likes to impress her alien friends by showing them what she's picked up.
I'm also guessing O'Brien still struggles with Bajoran and relies much more heavily on the UT to communicate (he's just seriously uninterested in language, and feels a bit bad but not bad enough to make the required effort. He has so much other shit to do anyway.) Keiko probably had to sit her ass down and learn proper Bajoran to be able to run that school, though.
And as for Ferengi and their language, this isn't supported by canon in any way, but in my head they definitely have a known pidgin language in Alpha. So many traders developed one on Earth, and several are still in use today, so it's unavoidable that they'd have some sort of simple language that they, and also pretty much any tradesperson in Alpha would know and use to communicate when doing said trading. It's common knowledge almost everyone who does intergalactic business picks up after a while (although Ferengi can definitely be credited with a lot of its creation.) Not only does this make it easier to trade even without a UT, it's also useful to be able to drop from the pidgin into Ferengi to be able to talk without anybody who isn't also Ferengi understanding you (to scold your idiot brother for example.) I imagine the pidgin is very simple, structured and like, almost legalistic, while Ferengi is much more fluid and expressive (and also includes a lot of sounds as tone indicators! I mean Ferengi hiss. There's gotta be traces of that in the language itself.)
Since Quark doesn't carry around any visible device or piece of tech that could actually hold a Universal Translator, I assume he either doesn't use one or keeps it in a pocket or something. Either way, he knows passable Bajoran, passable English(?) and passable Cardassian, and probably bits and pieces of just about everything else. His one and strongest weapon is his word, after all. He does have a distinct accent/messes up more than most though (jack of all trades master of none), and also has a nervous thing of switching between languages when threatened. (Say, flipping between Bajoran and English(?) if Sisko and Odo are both getting on his ass about something at the same time.) Quark's language habits and Rom's apparent inability to parent his child have NOT been good for Nog, who speaks broken just-about-Everything and starts out heavily relying on the UT to communicate before Jake's second-hand schooling gets the better of him.
Anyway, I'm not sure about Julian. I think probably, he has learned Bajoran, although slowly and to begin with not all that well, because he keeps getting distracted by all the other shit there is to learn, and is much more interested in medicine or biology or tennis than say languages. His eagerness does not quite match his actual skill, ensue comedy hijinks. Unlike Sisko, Julian's ultra-British accent is definitely the actual language he speaks, though.
When he talks to Garak specifically, he just speaks English, and Garak just speaks Cardassian. You might think a spy would bother learning the language he's surrounded by, but I imagine Cardassians rely much more heavily on the UT than others, due to the cultural norm of valuing their own language so highly. It is the best one, after all, so why bother learning any other languages? Garak, still being heavily affected by all that propaganda, has never really had the thought of trying to speak it, although he's picked up parts here and there. He's already convinced there isn't much he could do that would make Bajorans on the station hate him any less, anyway, and he tells himself that as soon as he makes it back to Cardassia he's never going to leave the place again. Either way, he and Julian probably face the biggest language barrier out of anybody on the station, and it leads them into a lot of discussions about etymology and translation work along with the usual book reviews.
I also imagine Cardassian as a language is very sharp and sounds structured, with each syllable being clearly spoken, "barked," as they say. But I also wonder if maybe its a tonal language, making it so that most words have several meanings depending on how you say it, and probably also the context in which it's said. The UT kind of struggles with this (Cardassian being a devilishly difficult language to learn) and that's why almost every Cardassian we hear in ds9 sound like they're either flirting or plotting to kill you. Everything is a little bit vague.
"Quark," he repeats, "if you're going to say something about my behaviour yesterday I want to remind you that was Curzon doing the talking."
Quark casts him a sharp look over his shoulder and gives him the most sarcastic shrug he's capable of. He waves another glass vaguely, as if to indicate vaguely the width and weight of Odo's sins against him.
"Last I heard you'd be fully capable of regaining control over yourself anytime," he says.
"It was different for us," Odo growls. He puts his arms over the bar. "Besides you're used to your customers throwing you about. They always seem to have one reason or another."
---
Post-Facets, Quark still acts as though his feels are hurt by Odo and Curzon's little prank from earlier. Odo hasn't the faintest idea why, but then again he's probably a lot less perceptive than you are.
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