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 | Re: S'pht & Pfhor languages - do S'Pht Speak? | |
| Posted By: Yossarian | Date: 12/30/02 3:56 p.m. |
| In Response To: Re: S'pht & Pfhor languages - do S'Pht Speak? (Steve Levinson) : Was it ever a spoken language? Consider the following: 1. The nonuse of the word "the" and other articles, leaving the noun bare. 2. The incorporation of the word "and" into a sentence, which, in S'Pht, is often just a little more than a big long word. 3. The preference of apostrophes to spaces, shortening the pause between one word and the next. Taking this into account, i think one could make a strong case for S'pht being a language designed to be swiftly and cleanly read, as opposed to clearly spoken. Notice on the picture of the two S'pht prisoners on Charon Doesn't Make Change; the little buggers lack *ears*. Not only that, but they're mouths are small enough to suggest that they lack significant muscle tissue around their lips to mouth the sharp words of their language. Furthermore, a language that required quick and jagged starting and stopping at every apostrophe or syllable would require the capacity and lung strength to be able to hold and release air quickly. In this respect, S'pht is not unlike Navajo or Apache, where sometimes the force at which a word is said determines its mood or meaning, and where stomach muscles and the diaphragm play as important a role in pronunciation as the larynx. Again, looking at these creatures, do they look capable of making such noises, at least, to an extant loud enough to be heard by their fellow s'pht who don't even have the hears with which to hear them...? | |
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