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Re: Proboscidean phonology

From:Geoff Horswood <geoffhorswood@...>
Date:Thursday, December 16, 2004, 9:05
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 21:46:45 +0200, Rodlox <Rodlox@...> wrote:

>----- Original Message ----- >From: Geoff Horswood <geoffhorswood@...> >To: <CONLANG@...> >Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 2:48 PM >Subject: Proboscidean phonology >
[snip]
> > would the ultrasound from the (forehead?) be a consonant or a vowel? >*curious* >
Isn't it _infra_sound rather than ultrasound? I seem to recall something about elephants producing sounds too _low_ for the human ear to perceive. Maybe that's part of the tonal system? 3 tonal registers: high, low and infrasound? Or perhaps everything shifts down to infrasound for long-distance communication, so infrasound is something akin to organic telephony. Hmmm....
> >> As far as the creatures themselves go, I'm thinking to give them a little >> more dexterity than a terrestrial elephant by increasing both number and >> length of the finger-like extensions on the end of the trunk- possibly up >> to as many as 8, in four pairs around the trunk. > > just a thought, but why not keep the "fingers" normal...and have >object-manipulations be joint efforts between two or more individuals? >
I like it. I don't like the picture conjured up in my head that a forked trunk gives (a la fithp, in John's suggestion), but I think I will give them slightly more adept "fingers", maybe 4, a little proportionally longer than those of an Indian Elephant, but not so much so that they become more like tentacles. Then they'd probably base their numeral system on a base-4 system (elephants' toes not being of enough size or dexterity to count well- you can't fold them down or open them out as you count).

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Rodlox <rodlox@...>