Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

NON-spoken, NON-written, NON-human conlang.

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 14, 2004, 20:02
Speaking of non-human languages, suppose a race of
trans-temporal, inter-dimensional energy beings
communicated telepathically.  Suppose further that the
were non-corporeal so they could not make any kind of
sounds, let alone speech sounds, and could not affect
the physical world in any way making writing or
recording of their language impossible for them.

How would such a language work?  Here are some random
scriblings:

First premise: Being trans-temporal their telepathic
language lacks anything that we might call sequential
order.  An entire "sentence" is communicated
simultaneously, as if six different people each
shouted a different word at the same time and those
six simultaneous words constituted the "sentence".
They DO understand the concept of temporal ordering by
their observation of humans and other 3-dimensional
beings, but they do not live in a temporally order
dimension, so do not actually USE temporal ordering.

Second premise:  There are no "words" in this
language.  Thought forms are communicated via some
"aetheric" channel by a superposition of quantum wave
packets.  These wave packets could be studied by human
linguists by performing a nine-dimensional Fourier
Transform on the wave packets and comparing a given
wave packet to the catalog of known packet forms.
Since human linguists would like to be able to discuss
these packet forms among themselves a standaradized
catalog designator is given to each packet form.  The
most common packet forms are given single letter
designators such as "L" or "E".  When these packet
desginators are exhausted, two-letter designators are
assigned such as "HK", or "PM".  Continuing in this
manner longer packet desginators are assigned as
required whenever a new packet form is discovered.

Third premise: Thoughtform packets cannot exist in
isolation, but must be part of part of a pair of
associated packets, forming a holographic interference
wave.  Their telepathic aparatus detects only aetheric
interference patterns, so isolated packets, called
"free radicals" are invisible to them.  One such pair
of wave packets in superposition is called a "unit".
Human scholars designate a unit by enumerating its two
constituent wave packets such as "RP:KLT", or "G:TQ".
Note that since these two units are superimposed
telepathically the idea of "order" is meaningless so
that "RP:KLT" is identical to "KLT:RP".  The
convention among human scholars is to write the
shortest of the two designators first, and to write
them in alphabetical order if they are of the same
length.

(Note that "KLP" is NOT the same as "PLK" because
these letters are an arbitrary designator assigned by
human scholars and bear no resemblence to the actual
thoughtform wave pattern, which cannot be heard, seen,
or written down in any meaningful way.)

Fourth premise: The units that make up a "sentence" or
complete thought (called a cluster) are also
transmitted and received simultaneously by these
beings so the notion of "word order" is meaningless.
The function played by a given thoughtform in the
whole mental transaction is determined by what two
wave packets are superimposed. For example, suppose
the packet designated "RGB" conveys the notion of a
male lion, then "P:RPG" might convey the notion that a
lion is performing some action while "UT:PRG" might
mean that the lion was the observer of some action.
The action itself would have to be conveyed by yet
another unit in the thoughtform cluster.

Fifth premise: Proper names consist of a pair of
packets superimposed, which can be thought of as
"describing" the person, being or object to which that
name belongs.  However, in order to be used in a
thougtform cluster names must be "free radicals",
i.e., single, non-superimposed wave packets.  For this
reason it is conventional in formal "conversation" or
when the beings discussed are not personally known to
all present to sidebar the conversation with some
thoughtform clusters that establish the "nicknames" to
be used in the context of the conversation.  For
example, suppose we used the proper name "DNC:WLV"
(pretend it means "DancesWith:Wolves"), before we can
"talk" about this person we would exchange a cluster
that looked like [DNC:WLV CH:WLV] and meant, roughly,
[DanceWith:Wolves; CallHim:Wolves].  From that point
on in the conversation we can use the single wave
packet "WLV" to stand for the proper name "DNC:WLV" so
that we can communicate that this person was witness
to some event by communicating the superposition
"UT:WLV". (Using "UT" as defined in one of the above
examples.)

Note also that the cluster [DNC:WLV CH:WLV] could have
been written [CH:WLV DNC:WLV] because word "order" is
meaningless when the entire cluster is actually
communicated simultaneously.

In informal communication among close friends the
nicknames would be assumed to be known and the sidebar
clusters would be omitted.

What other features would the language have I wonder?

--gary

Reply

Mark P. Line <mark@...>