think maybe we could manage it, if you set out within a week and come back within four weeks after that. That gives us a week or two’s margin for search in case. Sound the interpreters and see who would best like to go with you ... Well now, what do these columns of symbols stand for?’
‘Thanks, Chief. Well, the left-hand column here is what with us would be labials — lip-sounds. Actually they use the orifice-mantle and outer teeth. There are two kinds of p -sound, two b’s, no f or v by itself at all, two w -sounds, two wh -likesounds above them there, two m’s, and two labial laterals (rather a strange bird linguistically).’
Jacobs snorted.
‘Similarly with these palatals, or what with us would be palatalized gingivals and such. They use the inner rows of teeth and the tongue. There are two ty -like sounds, two sh -likesounds, and so on, all corresponding to the labial examples in the first column ... Then on the right are the quasi-velar, quasi-uvular sounds — two q’s, two qh’s and so on. They use the retro-tongue for these, not the main tongue at all. All these thirty-six are not counting collocational variants. What the retrolingual l does to a neighbouring orifice- l , for instance, is nobody’s business.’
Jacobs ground his teeth silently.
‘Well, the word these two men thought was tyewhdyem (but I spell it with only four consonant symbols to your seven, and two schwas) was, I’m pretty certain, tchewhdyemm — look, I’ll write it here, though I’d spell it professionally with only five consonants at most; and the first consonant, you see here, is a different one.’
‘And that means?’
‘Tough, brave, stout-hearted; or courage, guts, if you like: that’s what they were calling them, tough guys. The i -vowel and the grin posture, in so far as they were conscious at all, were complimentary, a slap on the back, I expect.’
‘My God! ... How do the words come to be so much alike?’
‘They’re only alike to you because you aren’t used to Sshmeqh phonology. Also, we don’t know for certain what really reaches their aural centres in their brains. Listen to this -’ and he switched on a machine. It was saying over and over again, ‘Tch-mb-, tch-mb-, tch-mb- ...’
‘Now this.’
‘Ty-mm-ny, ty-mm-ny, ty-mm-ny ...’
‘Can’t hear much difference except at the end.’
‘Wait. Listen to this. This is word number one.’
Depressing another switch, Anson produced from the same machine something in a deep yawning tone that sounded like ‘Ttthawmhwbbah ... tlthawmhwbbah ...’
‘That’s quarter-speed or so. Now the second word.’
This time the machine produced ‘Ttrrhhohmwwawhnn ... ttrrhhohmwwawhnn ...’
‘Yes, I begin to see. You think that’s what they really hear?’
Who’s to say? We can’t dissect them, and even if we could! And as they have no true writing, only a kind of pictography, there are no graphic clues. All I’m saying is, there is a difference which quartering the speed brings out, and maybe their auditory chain can pick up this difference easier than ours can. Now I have another surprise for you. These thirty-six consonants aren’t true phonemes. There are only about eighteen phonemes. A pretty meagre equipment by human standards, particularly as there aren’t any true vowels, but quite adequate to furnish a language. Anyway, about half of the thirty-six consonants are the manifestations, I’m pretty sure, of combinations of phonemes. You know how some men’ll say “Canh say” instead of “Can’t say.” Well, that voiceless n at the end of “Canh” may be regarded as a combination, in their speech, of an n -phoneme and a t -phoneme. Same here, only all over. Look, here’s my battery of phonemes.’
Anson unrolled another chart in which the three columns now contained six symbols each.
‘I won’t bother you with details, but that sound tch, for
‘Thanks, Chief. Well, the left-hand column here is what with us would be labials — lip-sounds. Actually they use the orifice-mantle and outer teeth. There are two kinds of p -sound, two b’s, no f or v by itself at all, two w -sounds, two wh -likesounds above them there, two m’s, and two labial laterals (rather a strange bird linguistically).’
Jacobs snorted.
‘Similarly with these palatals, or what with us would be palatalized gingivals and such. They use the inner rows of teeth and the tongue. There are two ty -like sounds, two sh -likesounds, and so on, all corresponding to the labial examples in the first column ... Then on the right are the quasi-velar, quasi-uvular sounds — two q’s, two qh’s and so on. They use the retro-tongue for these, not the main tongue at all. All these thirty-six are not counting collocational variants. What the retrolingual l does to a neighbouring orifice- l , for instance, is nobody’s business.’
Jacobs ground his teeth silently.
‘Well, the word these two men thought was tyewhdyem (but I spell it with only four consonant symbols to your seven, and two schwas) was, I’m pretty certain, tchewhdyemm — look, I’ll write it here, though I’d spell it professionally with only five consonants at most; and the first consonant, you see here, is a different one.’
‘And that means?’
‘Tough, brave, stout-hearted; or courage, guts, if you like: that’s what they were calling them, tough guys. The i -vowel and the grin posture, in so far as they were conscious at all, were complimentary, a slap on the back, I expect.’
‘My God! ... How do the words come to be so much alike?’
‘They’re only alike to you because you aren’t used to Sshmeqh phonology. Also, we don’t know for certain what really reaches their aural centres in their brains. Listen to this -’ and he switched on a machine. It was saying over and over again, ‘Tch-mb-, tch-mb-, tch-mb- ...’
‘Now this.’
‘Ty-mm-ny, ty-mm-ny, ty-mm-ny ...’
‘Can’t hear much difference except at the end.’
‘Wait. Listen to this. This is word number one.’
Depressing another switch, Anson produced from the same machine something in a deep yawning tone that sounded like ‘Ttthawmhwbbah ... tlthawmhwbbah ...’
‘That’s quarter-speed or so. Now the second word.’
This time the machine produced ‘Ttrrhhohmwwawhnn ... ttrrhhohmwwawhnn ...’
‘Yes, I begin to see. You think that’s what they really hear?’
Who’s to say? We can’t dissect them, and even if we could! And as they have no true writing, only a kind of pictography, there are no graphic clues. All I’m saying is, there is a difference which quartering the speed brings out, and maybe their auditory chain can pick up this difference easier than ours can. Now I have another surprise for you. These thirty-six consonants aren’t true phonemes. There are only about eighteen phonemes. A pretty meagre equipment by human standards, particularly as there aren’t any true vowels, but quite adequate to furnish a language. Anyway, about half of the thirty-six consonants are the manifestations, I’m pretty sure, of combinations of phonemes. You know how some men’ll say “Canh say” instead of “Can’t say.” Well, that voiceless n at the end of “Canh” may be regarded as a combination, in their speech, of an n -phoneme and a t -phoneme. Same here, only all over. Look, here’s my battery of phonemes.’
Anson unrolled another chart in which the three columns now contained six symbols each.
‘I won’t bother you with details, but that sound tch, for
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