Re: Introduction to FourHorse

In a message dated 6/19/01 5:02:59 PM, nsampat@IX.NETCOM.COM writes:

<< On nonhuman tongues in general:

These seem to be rare birds in the conlang world.  How many are there flying

around?

At one point I had a conlang for very long-lived beings who had a longevity

gender system; humans fell under 'transient', the same category as mayflies

and sea turtles.  I lost my otes on it, though. >>

    Three items:
    (1) I once thought up a race of aliens that had smooth tubes for throats
and mouths with no teeth or bumps or anthing, and a tongue.  I thought they
would rub their tongue against certain parts of their throat to produce
different musical tones.  I started to make out an IPA chart for these type
of beings, including vibrato, slide, hammer-on sounds, repetition, etc.  An
IPA chart it remains--and an incomplete one, at that.
    (2) With my font creator program, I created a font and sound system for
some sort of alien beings, influenced by these guys on an episode of Next
Generation that spoke in binary.  Again, a font it remains.
    (3) Not other-beingly, but I thought up a language where there were no
vowels.  I pictured a normal society of humans driven out violently by
another sect and forced to live in the woods where they were hunted for
sport.  In order to stay hidden and survive, they first ceased speaking, but
then the generations of children (small groups, of course) began to mimic
animal noises and forest sounds, and from that, created a language that would
sound just like noise.  I then envisioned them growing in strength and
eventually taking the city back.  Anyway, this remains an idea.

-David