Re: OT: Non-Human Phonology

staving Rob Haden:

>Anyways, I thought I'd submit this idea to the list to see if anyone would
>be interested discussing it and what suggestions they have.  I'm not
>getting into grammar or syntax -- this is purely a discussion of
>phonology.  That is, what meaningful elements would be likely to arise
>from creatures who are (at least) orally similar to birds?  So let the
>ideas come forth! :)
Relative pitch will be a more suitable basis for a language than absolute
pitch, since it is easier to identify, and can cope better with changes in
the speaker's voice over the course of a lifetime. Perhaps the basic
phonemes of such a language are pairs of tones separated by a given
interval, eg rising fifth, descending minor third etc. A sequence of N
notes could thus contain N-1 phonemes, one for each successive pair of
notes. There might be phonotactic constraints on how many rising or falling
intervals can occur consecutively, to prevent the utterance going out of a
typical speaker's range. And if their aesthetic sense is anything like a
human's, the tritone is likely to be forbidden.

Pete

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