Re: alien xeno-anthropologists (was: Abkhaz)

First, I would make up some incredibly simple but off the wall grammatical
structure. Say, a list format, or an outline format.
Second, I would give them sounds rather like electronic sound equipment
going awry, and a translator with lots of pictures. They show you a picture
and poke you, and point to the picture. and wait, but not for long. Once
this goes on for a week or so, the aliens make their wierd sound, and the
translator replies, in your voice. "Hi, sure glad we can finally talk!" The
box they have knows already what the aliens "say" the pictures indicate.
Finally they would start taking tissue samples, and soon the world begins to
fill once again with humans... that this time have lots in common with you -
though they never did before!
Hows that!?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Caleb Hines" <cph9fa@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: alien xeno-anthropologists (was: Abkhaz)


> John Quijada said:
> >
> > What "exotic" features about your language would you make up for alien
> > xeno-anthropologists who visit Earth after some nuclear or biological
> > holocaust to find you as the last living human being?
>
> How about this:
>
> English only has one vowel, but it has many phonetic realizations. This
> vowel is never written in the text, but the consonants a, e, i, o, u, and
> sometimes y are silent and act as placeholders for this vowel. Under no
> condition is the choice of a placeholder consonant at all related to the
> choice of phonetic representation for the unwritten vowel. Indeed, the
> choice of phonetic realization often changes from one dialect to another.
>
> ~Caleb
>