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Re: Musical conlangs (was: Poetique)

From:Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Sunday, January 11, 2004, 8:55
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 =============================================== http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown ray.brown@freeuk.com (home) raymond.brown@kingston-college.ac.uk (work) =============================================== "A mind which thinks at its own expense will always interfere with language." J.G. Hamann, 1760

Replies

Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
John Cowan <cowan@...>