Re: Pitch and tense

In a message dated 6/26/99 2:40:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time,=20
bsarempt@REMPT.XS4ALL.NL writes:

<< If it's the language that's monotonous, and if it is meant that
 way, I'd say raise the tone of the whole phrase. Perhaps you can indicate
 the raised tone with some punctuation, like ^ at the start and end of
 the sentence, or a real arrow. Inverted exclamation marks would be
 good, too. On the other hand, simply making the verb high tone sounds
 very natural to me: in that case I'd put a macron on top of the vowel
 of the verb. Either way I can really see it work >>

Nzva is monotonous on purpose, which at first i saw as a step in my making=20
the most aesthetically unpleasing (to me) language possible, but i now see a=
s=20
an opportunity to add grammatic subtlety
with Boudewijn's suggestion in mind, I have decided to use *s  at the=20
beginning/end of each sentence in the narrative hearsay tense (the * was a=20
purely aesthetic choice) making the entire sentence high-pitched, whereas I=20
will also use a macron over the verb and only high-pitch-ify it when using=20
the narrative experienced tense.  thus:
PST. past=20


Jan'=FE     em uxa jit tasel
john-PST. a  new car obtain
John got a new car.

*Jan em uxa tasel*
(I heard) John got a new car.

Jan em uxa t=E1s=E9l
John got a new car (trust me, I saw it)

I think now that I have wandered into what was for me unknown territory (the=20
only other time I'd used tone/pitch was in Nedm, which had a "snide" tone=20
that made anything said lewd ond offensive) I have a feeling that this trend=20
will probably extend itself.  any suggestions as to other such possible=20
variations in speech, other than tone and pitch, or interesting tones?

pacs precs
Joe Mondello