Re: OT: Animal-sound ideophones (was Re: OT: Junk)

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 17:14:50 -0400, Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>
wrote:

>>Tirelat has words for the sounds that gerbils make: juik "squeak", tjyk
>>"chirp", and borok "thump". The "squeak" and "chirp" are faint high-pitched
>>vocalizations, and the "thump" is a warning noise made by stamping the hind
>>feet two or three times in rapid succession. "Juik" and "tjyk" can be
>>generically used for other kinds of squeaky or chirpy noises, but "borok"
>>was specifically created for gerbil thumping.
>
>I take it that gerbils have some special significance in the Tirelat culture?
>
>Isidora
>former gerbil owner
Tirelat doesn't actually have its own culture; it was one in a series of
personal languages (which it turns out I never used much except for conlang
relays and translations on the list). At the time I started the language
(spring of 1999), I had two gerbils named Leela and Nyssa (after characters
from the Doctor Who TV series).

Actually, I'm thinking of adapting Tirelat to be a Zireen language, but I
haven't got very far with that. I've extended the Tirelat alphabet (Vlika)
to be used with Zireen languages; I'm working out the history of how the
script evolved and how it was adapted to different sound systems. But
whether the Zireen homeworld has animals analogous to gerbils is something
I haven't found out yet.