Re: A DISTURBING proposal! (was Re: Personal langs and converse of aux)

>On 7 Feb, Steg wrote:
>
> >b. don't remember... i think i just make non-language noises... what do
> >you mean by crying in a language?
>
>Well, there is a type of "tearful speech" (for want of a better term)
>where you talk while you are extremely upset or distraught.
>(Such as grieving, extreme sorrow,  agony etc.)
>The idea is that extreme emotion cancels out anything except
>the most basic behaviors and you would use your most basic lang.
>     But since you mention "non-language noises", it is well known
>that cries of pain, what it seems only common sense to think of as
>non-linguistic or pre-linguistic "noises", are actually language specific
>and pretty basic. American English speakers say "ouch"
>or "ow" (= /au/, not /ou/). People who speak other langs might say,
>under similar conditions, /ai/, /oi/, or some other sound.
>     But this "basicness" is not completely true: I have spoken Hebrew
>long enough that I have internalized its conventions pretty well,
>including the "pain sound". Thus, if I am in a Hebrew frame of mind
>and I get hurt,  I will  automatically say /ai/. But if I am in an English
>frame of mind, I will revert to my "first lang" ,American English, and
>say  /au/ or /autS/.
>     ObConlang: do any conlangs have sounds that people in pain make?
>     I have to admit that I haven't put anything like that into rtemmu yet.
>
>Dan Sulani
I read somewhere that people have two levels of this kind of noises. When
they're not too badly in pain/wrecked with grief/etc they use
conventionalized interjections like English /autS/, Swedish /aj/ etc. When
they're in extreme pain or similar they'll howl inarticulate vocalic sounds
(like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!") that are the same in all language groups
(tho' there's unsystematic individual variation of course).

                                               Andreas
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