On Saturday, January 10, 2004, at 12:57 AM, Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> --- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
>
>> *For those interested, the 5 methods of writing
>> are:
>
>> The 13 methods of communications actually
>> contain several variants of
>> the same thing. They are:
>
> Actually, these are pretty interesting. I don't
> know how easy it would be to apply those
> particular symbols (the circle et al) to a manual
> communication for the deaf. Wouldn't the circle
> and half circle be difficult to differentiate?
Yep - I don't think the way described would be the
best. But it's interesting to note that Sudre & his
followers did apply their minds to ways of making their
language communicable to deaf and blind people. Very few,
if any, auxlang designers seem to have even considered
this,
[snip]
>> 4. You use your right to touch various points
>> on your left hand for
>> each note (I can't show this in a email).
>
> This is a very clever one! Though I don't see why
> one can't do this in a lefterly fashion.
Nor I - and you surely can. It was just that this is
the way it is described in Gajewski's grammar.
[snip]
>> 11. At night at sea one could fire colored
>> flares according the colors given in (10).
>
> That's a load o flares!
Quite so. I'm not whether all these 13 methods are
due to Sudre himself or whether some of them are the
result of Gajewski's enthusiasm and vivid imagination.
I suspect the latter.
While some are certainly practical, others are IMO rather
bizarre - and this is one such.
[snip]
> A steam ship ought to be able to produce enough
> pressure to power a loud and piercing caliope.
> Just add six notes to the foghorn already
> installed and Bob's you uncle!
>
> Add a few more notes, and the ships organist
> could strike up a merry tune!
yeah - but don't forget all those darn pauses :)
>> 13. Finally, at sea, can beat a drum, strike a
>> bell, blow a whistle, blow
>> a hunting horn (cor de chasse [on a boat??]),
>
> Not ideal, as a cor de chasse does not have easy
> access to a diatonic scale!
But ain't the French 'cor de chasse' sort of curly
and rather different from the hunting horn used in
the anglophone world?
[snip]
>> The thought of two ships communicating by
>> firing off cannons in bursts of
>> one to
>> seven rounds at time for each syllable as they
>> 'speak' to each other is
>> quite something!
>
> Just hope the other ship doesn't think you're
> trying to sink him!
Absolutely - I would think the idea of using cannon
for communication carries all sorts of risks.
> All of this has wonderful overtones for the
> traditional fantasist: imagine a fleet of
> warships steaming to action, piping out (encoded)
> messages upon great caliopes and foghorns with
> multicoloured flares flying!
Exactly so!
> This will have to implemented in the World, somewhere!
Well, at least in someone's conworld :)
Ray
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