Re: Nonpulmonic conlang?

It is undoubtedly possible to construct a fully non-pulmonic conlang, with
even no vowels:

Clicks only need a second pulmonic articulation is we want them to be
followed by a vowel. So if we delete the vowels, the second articulation can
remain unreleased forever and the clicks are purely non-pulmonic. The result
is like the tsk-tsk-tks sound used in English to admonish children.
Furthermore, this can be pronounced without any need to hold breath.
The same goes for lingual egressive sounds, like the tututut sound used in
French to admonisch children.
Once we have there two mechanisms, a lot of variation on it can be imagined.
The human anatomy allows for many noise-making moves, even with the velum
closed. Then these sounds can be modulated by opening the lips more or less,
creating labialised tsk's and so on. And if that is not enough, other things
can be used to make the language more "efficient", like using chronemes
(waiting a little or a long while between to sounds).

The result hardly sounds like human language at all; more like some animal
making random noises. But then, sounding human was not the goal of the
exercise... :-)

David

--
Idustvok va yentelkvil gifpir, puk gifpir, ivan kitil.