Saturday, 27 December 2025

Sounds And Concepts

 

The Man Who Counts, III.

Eric Wace tells Sandra Tamarin that he speaks the language of the migratory hunters of the Tyrlanian Flock on Diomedes:

"'As well as my human palate and Techno-Terrestrial culture permit me to, my lady. I don't pretend to understand all their concepts, but we get along-'" (p. 152)

How many intelligent species will use a single bodily orifice, a "mouth," for both eating and speaking? Fictional extraterrestrials remain anthropomorphic. 

As Wace indicates, a language comprises not only sounds but also concepts. Sf writers can, and sometimes do, introduce an alien word (Heinlein: "grok") that is used without translation by English/Anglic speaking characters so that readers have to learn its meaning from context. Poul Anderson does not really do this but his nearest approaches to it are:

Planha
choth
Khruath
Wyvan
Oherran
"deathpride" (this is translated for us)

Eriau
Vach

CS Lewis' Solar language
hnau
eldil
at

6 comments:

  1. S.M. Stirling27 December 2025 at 18:15

    Actually, all vertebrate life on Earth uses the same orifice for sound and eating and that's not an accident -- it economizes on demands on the body. So some extraterrestrials would probably have more than one opening, but most wouldn't.

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  2. Jim Baerg27 December 2025 at 18:23

    "Grok" is initially understood by most of the human characters to mean something like "to understand in a very profound sense", but later are informed that it initially meant to Martians "to drink". I always thought that a clever invented etymology, especially given the dryness of Mars assumed in the novel.

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  3. paulshackley2017@gmail.com27 December 2025 at 18:34

    Agreed to both.

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  4. Anonymous28 December 2025 at 09:12

    Kaor, Paul!!

    And Stirling explained better than I would have why I believe what I've called "parallel evolution is possible. That is, evolution on different planets are likely to end in many intelligent races having similar or analogous organs, senses, body structures, etc.

    Happy New Year! Sean

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  5. S.M. Stirling28 December 2025 at 13:05

    Sean: often, but not always. Evolution is a -random- process controlled by natural law. We've been walking upright for 6 million years but we still have knee and back problems unknown to quadrupeds...

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  6. Anonymous28 December 2025 at 20:23

    Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

    I agree, whatever a species ends up with via evolution is going to come with costs and trade-offs.

    Happy New Year! Sean

    ReplyDelete