Re: NonVerbal Conlang?

R A Brown wrote:
[snip]
> (b) conlangs that _cannot be oralized_?
> That is a _fully_ two-dimensional or (since we are not confining
> ourselves to writing) multi-dimensional non-linear communication?
> Charles Sheffield's "insectoid" language & David Weber's Medusan seem to
> be examples of this.
Eh? Are you sure, Ray?
(Hopefully I can say "Eh?" to myself with offending anyone   ;)

I realized afterwards that Medusan probably is not such a language. On
reading Chris' description more carefully, it appears that of the three
components, small/scent is suprasegmental ("the aliens used it for
emphasis only"); it seems to me also probable that sound & gesture
communication is parallel. That is we do not have a _fully_
multi-dimensional language (in the sense Sai meant with 'fully 2D
non-linear writing'), but rather two serial modes of communication
running in parallel. If this is so, then an oralization is possible if
only for inter-human representation of the Medusan language (the words
would need to encompass both the Medusan sound and gesture components -
if you see what I mean.

The description of Cecropian is not detailed enough to know whether
these are serial bursts of pheromone mixes or whether we do have
something that could be rightly described as _fully_ multi-dimensional.
Interesting  :)

--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
==================================
"A mind which thinks at its own expense will always
interfere with language."         J.G. Hamann, 1760

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