Re: replies to padraic brown and danny wier

On 5 July, Nik Taylor wrote:

>Samuel Rivier wrote:
>> 4. aUI clone- not an international auxilary language,
>> but a UNIVERSAL auxilary language- how can one
>> communicate with aliens?
>
>I've thought about this a bit.  My notion is that there would be a small
>number of "phonemes" split into two categories (called A and B), each
>having, say, 8 "phonemes".  All "syllables" would be AB.  The nature of
>these "phonemes" would depend on the species.  For instance, for humans,
>A could be consonants (say, /p t k m n l f s/) and B could be vowels
>(say, /i i: e e: a a: u u:/).  Other species would use different
>values.  Simple AB would ensure that it would be easily adapted to a
>wide variety of communication systems.  I'm sure that any language would
>have to have phoneme-analogues.

    Are we talking _language_ more or less as humans know it,
or other possible alien communication systems?
    Charles Sheffield, in his "Heritage Universe" series,
has, as one of the main characters, an intelligent alien  something
like a giant insect whose language consists of pheromone-like
chemicals. By subtle changes in the molecules and mixtures of
molecules produced, the alien is capable of extremely subtle
communication (with those, of course, who are capable of
intercepting and interpreting the chemical signals).
    Question: would your idea work for them?
    Myself, I'm a little doubtful that there could exist an "a priori"
universal lang that would encompass both human and all types
of alien communication that could ever exist (= "universal").
    Assuming that intelligent aliens existed who communicated by
exchange of chemicals, for example, would they even consider the
electromagnectic spectrum as a medium for long distance communication?
Could they develop space technology without radio? Implications
for SETI's search for interstellar intelligent life: maybe it's all over the
place, just not using any "language" suitable for broadcasting with
radio waves?
    And, most important,  <G>  , could they even develop their own version
of conlanging?

Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.

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