Re: Music-conlangs & music

On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 13:43:39 +0200, "Henrik Theiling"
<theiling@...> said:
>
> Hmm, feasible, yes, I think so.  Even if tones alone were used for
> encoding, I'd expect quite a few notes to be needed to make an
> utterance.  In a seven phoneme tone-only language, I'd be confident
> that the ambiguities would be seldom.
>
> If it was a 'normal' tone-language that also has spoken words, you
> could mark subject, object and verb with different tones, thereby
> ensuring that you'd have at least the distinction minor vs. major even
> for subject + verb with only one syllable, i.e., two tones.  With an
> object, you could have the other distinctions, too, if you don't have
> too many modes.
The key (pardon the pun) here is that the language also has a spoken
component. This would allow this system to work, I think.

> I think it is worth a try, the idea is funny. :-)
>
> E.g.:
>
>     Tone:      1  2  3  4  5  6  7
>   Lydian:      C  D  E  F# G  A  B   -- used for imperatives
>   Mixolydian:  C  D  E  F  G  A  Bb  -- used for indicative
>   Dorian:      C  D  Eb F  G  A  Bb  -- used for subjunctive
>   Phrygian:    C  Db Eb F  G  Ab Bb  -- used for questions
>
> (C is just an example, the tones are not absolute notes, but the scale
> may start for anything comfortable with the speaker.)
This could prove to be ambiguous. What would be necessary, I think is
for the person to *always* use the same base pitch. Otherwise the
closeness
of the modes could be a problem. For example: If the person started a
Dorian clause on C, but then did a Lydian clause on Eb, the pitches
involved
would be exactly the same. (C Dorian = Eb Lydian as far as pitches go.)

> So Lydian and Mixolydian are Major and distinguished by two tones, and
> Dorian and Phrygian are Minor and also distinguished by two tones.
> (The distance between Mixolydian and Dorian is only one tone, but I
> like Dorian and Phrygian very much, therefore I selected those.  The
> choice is quite arbitrary, of cause.)
>
> Let basic word order be free (for now), constituents marked by tone.
I think for this to work there would need to be a fixed word order,
preferably
verb initial, since that gives you the base tone for the modes.

[snip examples]

> What do you think of such a system?
It could work, especially with a spoken component.
Fun idea!
--------
James W.

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