apostrophe, or the hyphen?) Now, if I say Sshmiqh or Sshmeeqh (or in this case, probably Sshmϋqh) with an i -type vowel, I’m amused, or specially cheerful. If I say Sshmooqh with that u -sound, it means I love them, or I’m feeling sentimental or something. If I say Sshmahqh with that a -sound, it means I’m angry, or frightened, or that some sort of emergency is on. If I say Sshmauqh with that o -sound, it means I’m sad, or depressed, or awed about something.’
‘Would you use these vowels just for key words, or a whole sentence?’
‘A whole sentence or a whole speech. They’re supra-segmental phonemes in the American sense, really — they carry over the whole utterance. The Sshmeqh mouth returns to the i -position, or the a -position, or whatever it is, whenever it gets the chance. In fact they’re an unconscious reaction, more or less.’
‘Is that why their speech is so monotonous in tone?’
‘Yes, you’ve got it. They’ve no function for pitch variation.’
‘So those two villains were amused at the idiocy of the men carrying a heavy genny?’
‘Not necessarily. No, I don’t think so. They were in a cheerful mood, or joking, but I don’t think they were jibing at Simons and — was it Harte you said?’
‘Yes. They’ve kept clear of the blighters ever since. Say they hate their guts.’
‘Quite unnecessary. I wish they’d called me in. You see, I don’t think you quite realize the sound structure of this language. How many different consonant sounds do you think there are?’
‘Well, there’s b, d, f, g, a sort of gh-sound, j, at least two kinds of /-sound, m, n, and I suppose linguists call ng another? Then there’s p , q, a qh-sound, sh, t, v, at least one kind of w, a separate wh- or hw -sound, that ubiquitous y -sound, and a kind of zh- sound — or is that the same as j ? That makes, say, twenty-one?’
Anson sighed, just perceptibly. ‘Of distinguishable consonants there are at least thirty-six; not that that’s high for a language, that is considering there are no vowels properly speaking. And these consonants are not as haphazard as you seem to think.’
‘You mean, we may have got a consonant wrong in that tchuffjim word — it may mean something else?’
‘Just that — and a little bit more. Come and look at my charts.’ Anson rolled down a cylinder on a wall. Three columns of twelve symbols (six pairs) each, were printed on it in his clear hand.
‘I can’t follow these phoney — phonee — phonemes, do you call them?’
‘No, these are not phonemic symbols. They are my shot at a structure of broad phonetic symbols in accordance with Sshmeqh phonology; or rather according to this Sshmeqh language: there are others further round the planet, I’m told, quite different, and what’s more many of them are full of true vowels too. In fact I’ve been going to ask you if I could have a month away at the nearest language frontier — it’s supposed to be the equivalent of only 2,500 kilometres south-south-east -and take a tape machine. That one’s a tone language, moreover, like Chinese as it were. I could test whether the Sshmeqh pictograms were interlingual too. I’d use one of the short-hop craft. I’d like to take one of the interpreters and a native friend of mine who knows the way and could help with the other language. We’d need some hot-climate clothing and so on. I would have to leave all the possible analyses till I got back. It should provide enough material to give the elements of a second language for any future expedition, eh?’
‘What would you do about your stuff here? You’d be out of effective radio range, too.’
‘I’d leave it sealed and labelled, in case anything happened to me, with all my notes. I could leave instructions about what native to contact in case we never turned up again and you thought it worth sending a second machine with a search party.’
‘I
‘Would you use these vowels just for key words, or a whole sentence?’
‘A whole sentence or a whole speech. They’re supra-segmental phonemes in the American sense, really — they carry over the whole utterance. The Sshmeqh mouth returns to the i -position, or the a -position, or whatever it is, whenever it gets the chance. In fact they’re an unconscious reaction, more or less.’
‘Is that why their speech is so monotonous in tone?’
‘Yes, you’ve got it. They’ve no function for pitch variation.’
‘So those two villains were amused at the idiocy of the men carrying a heavy genny?’
‘Not necessarily. No, I don’t think so. They were in a cheerful mood, or joking, but I don’t think they were jibing at Simons and — was it Harte you said?’
‘Yes. They’ve kept clear of the blighters ever since. Say they hate their guts.’
‘Quite unnecessary. I wish they’d called me in. You see, I don’t think you quite realize the sound structure of this language. How many different consonant sounds do you think there are?’
‘Well, there’s b, d, f, g, a sort of gh-sound, j, at least two kinds of /-sound, m, n, and I suppose linguists call ng another? Then there’s p , q, a qh-sound, sh, t, v, at least one kind of w, a separate wh- or hw -sound, that ubiquitous y -sound, and a kind of zh- sound — or is that the same as j ? That makes, say, twenty-one?’
Anson sighed, just perceptibly. ‘Of distinguishable consonants there are at least thirty-six; not that that’s high for a language, that is considering there are no vowels properly speaking. And these consonants are not as haphazard as you seem to think.’
‘You mean, we may have got a consonant wrong in that tchuffjim word — it may mean something else?’
‘Just that — and a little bit more. Come and look at my charts.’ Anson rolled down a cylinder on a wall. Three columns of twelve symbols (six pairs) each, were printed on it in his clear hand.
‘I can’t follow these phoney — phonee — phonemes, do you call them?’
‘No, these are not phonemic symbols. They are my shot at a structure of broad phonetic symbols in accordance with Sshmeqh phonology; or rather according to this Sshmeqh language: there are others further round the planet, I’m told, quite different, and what’s more many of them are full of true vowels too. In fact I’ve been going to ask you if I could have a month away at the nearest language frontier — it’s supposed to be the equivalent of only 2,500 kilometres south-south-east -and take a tape machine. That one’s a tone language, moreover, like Chinese as it were. I could test whether the Sshmeqh pictograms were interlingual too. I’d use one of the short-hop craft. I’d like to take one of the interpreters and a native friend of mine who knows the way and could help with the other language. We’d need some hot-climate clothing and so on. I would have to leave all the possible analyses till I got back. It should provide enough material to give the elements of a second language for any future expedition, eh?’
‘What would you do about your stuff here? You’d be out of effective radio range, too.’
‘I’d leave it sealed and labelled, in case anything happened to me, with all my notes. I could leave instructions about what native to contact in case we never turned up again and you thought it worth sending a second machine with a search party.’
‘I
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