OT: Asking for help

Sai Emrys wrote:

> Of course, if you've got your own species, then this may not
> necessarily hold. Our ears are not significantly mobile so don't carry
> much info; our hair / fur isn't very obvious; and TTBOMK pheromones
> have yet to be proven to actually be perceptible.
While the Zireen are more like mammals than any other class, they also
have features of other kinds of animals. So some kind of pheromone
system is certainly possible. But for the reasons you mention, its
potential uses would be fairly limited.

> Well, think about the ways in which we can convey emotion (and the
> various hypothetical "free variation"s) other than through sheer
> pragmatics. Suppose all that was actually grammatical? What might it
> carry?
On the one hand, it could be some aspect of meaning that affects an
entire utterance. So it would still be a modifier, but possibly
something like an evidential modifier. Alternatively, you could end up
with a language where the speaker (to human ears) would be giving off a
different emotion with each word: "zar" with an angry voice would mean
one thing, but "zar" with a weary voice would mean something completely
different. That could be interesting, and potentially more realistic
(alien-sounding), but when it comes down to it, I don't really want a
language that sounds like what a realistic alien language might sound
like. The chances of anything like human consonants and vowels being a
part of an alien language must be really low.

> Take a serious look at signing too. Maybe even a cross-modal
> signing+speaking (i.e. both required at once) language?
>
> David Peterson and Donald Boozer come to mind offhand as people who've
> done signed conlangs.
Signed languages are interesting, but writing becomes a problem. I'm
sure there must be signed languages, but I've got enough to keep me busy
with just the vocal languages.

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