The thing is, arguing about that particular point is moot now. The first new movie establishes as a solid pseudo-fact that the Vulcan and Romulan languages are in fact almost indistinguishable, and one can be mistaken for the other even by a person who in theory might be able to do a translation.
This is clearly knowledge that is only accessible to the alternate version of late 2250s mankind, of course. Due to some event that did not take place in the original timeline, they already know Romulans are Vulcans. Perhaps information about how Nero looked like in the 2233 encounter somehow leaked to Starfleet, along with information establishing Nero as Romulan (even though neither of these was evident onscreen in the actual movie)?
But never mind. If Sato didn't spot the similarity, then we more or less have to assume that the Romulans were not transmitting in their native language after all. Perhaps these suspicious bastards ran their own speech through the UT before sending it out, making them sound like native N'bodians?
Also, we have to assume that whatever came out of the speakers was "Rumalin", whatever the explanation for that. Multiple scenarios are possible:
1) That's how the word really is pronounced in the modern Romulan language. But T'Pol remembers ye olden days, when a certain notorious group on Vulcan called themselves Romulans, and makes the connection on the spot.
2) The language hasn't changed a bit. The modern Romulans just have decided to call themselves the Rumalin Star Empire, for whatever reason; perhaps their great leader after the death of S'Task was named Rumalin? After all, they no longer are a population group or political faction on Vulcan - why should they refer to themselves by a name specific to those circumstances?
3) The transmission was garbled, and the Romulans said Romulan but Hoshi didn't quite catch it, and the famed Universal Translator was of no help in spell-checking alien proper names.
Personally, I like to think it's the first scenario. Reverse the roles and have the Vulcans venture out into deep space for the very first time with a condescending human observer aboard to chaperon them. A starship appears, with a red-white-black flag painted on the hull. T'Sato says "They hail from the Nutsy Sternenreich". The observer goes pale and says "Nazi. It's pronounced Nazi."
At that point, it doesn't matter much that T'Sato thinks their language sounds a bit like old Earth German. For all she knows, most people in the excitingly alien galaxy speak Earthling languages, for reasons of galactic history unknown to the Vulcan upstarts.
Timo Saloniemi
