Re: Whisperish

In a message dated 2/15/2000 10:21:11 AM Eastern Standard Time,
draqonfayir@JUNO.COM writes:

<< phonemically, the language has only voiceless phonemes, for instance:
 ...snip
 However, under certain conditions, everything becomes voiced:
 ...snip
What kind of conditions could those be?
 someone mentioned a word /qqs/ in a native american language whose
 speakers were unable to shout it.  >>

First off, let's hope that /qqs/ means something harmless, like 'pillow',
'corn mush' etc., not 'rock fall', 'rattlesnake', 'gaping pit'......"Look
out!! There's a /qqs/!!!!"  "What? What did you say?"........

As for Whisperish:
>>or, on a more sociolinguistic note, maybe there's a split between
 men/women, familiar/formal, etc., that would determine whether there's
 voice or not. >>
    You're on track for a lot of intriguing possibilities.  (1) Only the
dominants may use voice, everyone else stays in the kitchen or fields, and
whispers. Nothing they might say is of any interest anyway.  Conversely, (2)
Only the dominants may whisper-- rulers, priests, Bill Gates types.
Everything they say to each other is not the business of the unwashed braying
masses. One advantage:  no political speeches.  My vote: (3) a world so
blessedly quiet that nobody has to speak out loud.  Possible disadvantage
from a story-telling POV, maybe not much would happen on such a world.