Re: OT: Non-Human Phonology

staving Rob Haden:

> >From what I've read, birds have excellent absolute pitch and rather poor
>relative pitch, whereas it's vice-versa for humans and most other
>mammals.  So, despite the advantages you bring up in favor of relative
>pitch, I think absolute pitch might be the more realistic way to go here.
>Otherwise, though, your ideas on musical phonemes sound excellent!  I
>especially like the suggestion on phonotactic constraints.  What's a
>tritone, though?
It would appear strange to have good absolute pitch but poor relative
pitch. Are you saying that a bird coud recognise C,G and D', but not
recognise that the interval from C to G was the same as that from G to D'?

As for a tritone, it's also called a diminished fifth, an augmented fourth,
or  the diabolus in musica. It's the interval of 3 whole tones or 6
semitones, corresponding to a pitch ratio of sqrt(2) in the equally
tempered scale (64/45 or 45/32 in rational-interval scales), eg C to F#,
and is generally considered the most discordant inteval in the entire scale.

Pete