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Aug. 14th, 2009 09:30 pmIdea for creating space languages: just violate a few rules of Universal Grammar. Having a few rules that differ from all known languages should make them feel alien enough with not a lot of creative effort.
I feel the need to award bonus points for not including something that Pirahã has, since Pirahã is the most stripped down natural language I can think of. Like it doesn't have a number system. If you're wondering how on they count, the answer is that they don't count, or even grok the notion of counting. Trading with the Pirahã depends a great deal on the honesty of the outsider.
And maybe some phonemes that that humans can't produce for kicks. I can't remember exactly what they are, but there's two places in the IPA chart that are blocked off because it would eventually end with the human performer choking on their tongue.
I feel the need to award bonus points for not including something that Pirahã has, since Pirahã is the most stripped down natural language I can think of. Like it doesn't have a number system. If you're wondering how on they count, the answer is that they don't count, or even grok the notion of counting. Trading with the Pirahã depends a great deal on the honesty of the outsider.
And maybe some phonemes that that humans can't produce for kicks. I can't remember exactly what they are, but there's two places in the IPA chart that are blocked off because it would eventually end with the human performer choking on their tongue.
