Re: Heyas all!

On Sat, 27 Mar 1999 14:47:24 -0300 FFlores <fflores@...> writes:
>Trace Erin Kern <tracefox@...> wrote:
>[snip]
>> My mistake. I misquoted his advice. He was giving that advice not in
>the
>> construction of their language, but rather their names. That a
>> militaristic society would likely have shorter, rank driven names.
>While
>> a more relaxed species might have softer, perhaps longer names.
>
>I think that is a good approximation, but not totally convincing.
>Indeed, orders and commands are likely to be short, so that they
>can be shouted and understood quickly :) But you could also have
>people talk fast. Look at Japanese... Japanese words (especially
>verbs) tend to be long, names are often three or four syllables long,
>but the Japanese presumably manage to communicate at the same speed
>as English speakers do (using a lot of monosyllabic words). Japanese,
>with long long words spoken at a terrible speed, could be a good
>model for a "militaristic" language -- yet slow Japanese is rather
>"sweet" judging from what I've been able to hear.
True. But for sake of argument and simplicity, I offered the above.

>>
>> But again, biology plays a big part in what a species can and
>cannot
>> pronounce. I've often gotten sick at reading otherwise very fine
>> sci-fi/fantasy, but the aliens ability to speak perfect Terran
>allways
>> nixed me. Yes they may be using translator technology, but with
>some
>> species, they won't be *capable* of reproducing the same sounds a
>human
>> could.
>
>Yeah, I agree on that. In fact, I don't like humanoid aliens (who
>of course can perfectly speak human languages) unless there's a
>reason why they are humanoid. Evolution can't produce them by
>chance. For my stories I usually resort to the Hainish-type ancient
>species whose members sowed different planets with
>proto-hominid colonies...
Some biological reasons for the evolution into a 'humanoid' form:
Greater height from the ground, enabling greater visual range to avoid
predators and spot prey.
Hand make the use of tools much easier.

Beyond this, I don't know why a species would evolve into a humanoid
form. For simian species, it's semi-natural. For a species that was
descended from say canines, most likely they might evolve to semi-upright
to allow the development of handpaws, making the use of tools possible.
This is the basic evolutonary path of my Wolven species. (Named as such
until I can think of something more origonal.)

Trace Erin Kern: Shapeshifting Kitsune  -  TraceFox@juno.com
~Hah'Rooqh Tah'Khrine, Eayl Noh'Tahl~
~May you go in peace, all your journey~

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