Jo Walton stated that
Omnilingual was "influential" and "
the classic SF short story, the one everyone ought to read if they’re only going to read one", and noted that the story "raises a question that everyone who has dealt with the subject [when writing science fiction] since has had to either accept or find a way around", namely "If scientific truths are true for everyone, will we therefore be able to communicate with all scientifically literate cultures using science?" Walton also commended the story's use of gender equality and multicultural characters, with "the only thing that made [her] raise [her] eyebrows" being the constant use of alcohol and tobacco. The
Routledge Companion to Science Fiction similarly faulted this "ideological sleight-of-hand", emphasizing that the "extinct Martian civilization closely resembles the [then-]contemporary US: language is recorded in a linear written form divided into words; the title pages of printed magazines feature the title, month of publication, issue number, and table of contents; Martians live in cities with universities; universities are divided into disciplinary departments — and classrooms — more or less identical to terrestrial ones; and on the wall of the material sciences lab hangs a periodic table of elements, organizing information which might apply universally but which in no way demands graphic representation or public display."
John W. Cowan, inventor of
Lojban, praised
Omnilingual as "one of the best, science fiction stories in which the science is linguistic archaeology", and published a modernized version to his website in 2009. ==Stylometric study==