Re: research note on Pwxx (draft)

Hallo!

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 13:57:10 -0500,
"Mark P. Line" <mark@...> wrote:

> Jörg Rhiemeier said:
> > "Mark P. Line" <mark@...> wrote:
> >>
> >> I guess I should start applying for grants on speculative
> >> exolinguistics.
> >> We need to be ready when the time comes.....
> >
> > I think whatever we may speculate about what languages of alien
> > intelligences could be like, when they really show up, what we
> > may see probably goes beyond our speculations.
>
>
> True, but it doesn't hurt to push the envelope as far as we can anyway.
That's true.  But most `alien languages' I have seen are almost
unbearably anthropocentric, or attempt to look alien by applying
some rather superficial changes, such as putting the object first
in the sentence.  One of the more interesting alien conlangs
I am aware of is Jeffrey Henning's Fith, which uses a LIFO stack.
(However, its phonology is very human-like.)

> Stay tuned for my Research Note on the neurocognitive linguistics of
> cetacean communication........
Now that could be a show.  I am looking forward to it!

> >> > Are the "Greys" who speak this language the same "Greys" that we know
> >> from
> >> > UFO mythology?
> >>
> >> Yes.
> >
> > I guessed that.  Where do you imagine them to hail from?  Zeta-2
> > Reticuli?
>
> My wife's in charge of the backstory. I wouldn't be surprised if she
> decided to go with that, umm, consensus view...
Yes.  To my knowledge, the identification of the Grey homeworld with
a planet of Zeta-2 Reticuli (a sun-like star about 36 lightyears away)
dates back to (an interpretation of) the so-called "Betty Hill starmap",
a pattern of dots and lines which Betty Hill (a UFO abductee) claimed
to have seen aboard a Grey ship.  Ever since then, it has been the
traditional home system of the Greys.

There seems to be some "evidence" for the Greys to be amphibious,
and it has been speculated that they evolved in something like
mangrove swamps.  Perhaps they are better at speaking underwater
than we are ;-)

Greetings,

Jörg.