Kristian Jensen wrote:
> The syllable structure gives a total of 32 possible syllables -
> not enough for a completely oral speech.
Not necessarily. There are about a million four-syllable words, and
about 32,000 three-syllable. It's conceivable that a primitive species
might not need that many roots.
> These syllables are
> mainly used as bound 'morphemes' with signs and gestures. The
> language is therefore mostly a sign language.
Cool idea.
> Several speech morphemes can be uttered together with one sign.
> Word order within the speech element is not important. E.g.:
>
> Speech /GEN/ /plural/ or /plural/ /GEN/
> Sign < 1 > < 1 >
> Meaning 'our'
Interesting idea. But, don't you think that there'd be a tendency
towards one order or another?
> Alternatively, several sign morphemes can be given with one
> speech morpheme. E.g.:
>
> Speech / plural /
> Sign <bird> <lizard>
> Meaning 'birds and lizards' (perhaps 'lizard-birds')
Would that be a lengthened utterance, to last the length of those signs?
> 'Our gathering event of nuts (lasting less than half a day)
> after a strong rain (that lasted the whole day)'.
Interesting. I like this idea.
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