Non Human Languages (was inflected languages)

[hong]

Re: Re: [OT} Inflected languages

 

[Xeriar]

'Inflected language' doesn't just mean that the language uses different inflections of words. It means that two sounds pronounced with the same sound will have different definitions depending on whether it starts high and goes low, starts low and goes high, or starts low, has a high point in the middle, and ends low again.

Y'know, like MMaa, mmAA, and mMAa.

This is called 'tonal'

According to my linguistics professor, anyway.

 

[Xeriar]

I'm probably going to bring down a storm of people saying how wrong I am, but Japanese is somewhat like that.

I say somewhat because intonation is used in the language, and quite a bit, but its not needed for understanding. A good example is turning a sentence into a question. I hear all the time people using a rising lilt at the end of a sentence to convey uncertainty, that is, that they're asking a question. But they don't have to. They could just use the verbal modifier that adds a question element at the end of a sentence.

If someone says "genki da?" you just hear the "?" at the end from the intonation in their voice, asking if you're doing well. But if they say "genki da ka" you would know it was a question because the "ka" means, in English, "?". It's a word indicating that the rest of the sentence is a question. There are all sorts or particles and conjugations for things like that.

Japanese isn't a language that doesn't use intonations, since people are people, but I think that it could use no intonations and, without changing the language at all, still be as useful a language as it is now.

Most tones in Japanese are by male or female speaker. It does not change meaning at all, or connotation normally, but is used for humor in anime...

People who have strokes can lose all tone, there is definately a part of the brain that controls it, suggesting it is an inherent part of human language.

 

[Desdichado]

Dude, that title totally threw me off. An inflected language is one in which subject and object words transform (usually by adding an affix) to make them match. English is an inflected language, and if you leave the inflection off, you literally can't understand it.

Anyway, I guess that's not really what you meant, though...

 

[Gez]

Well, at first, I saw "infected language" and have thought of something wonky, like the slarecian language virus in the SL, or the dark speech from the BoVD. A discussion on that idea.

 

[Skade]

Well, at first, I saw "infected language" and have thought of something wonky, like the slarecian language virus in the SL, or the dark speech from the BoVD. A discussion on that idea.

Well run with it! In a sense I was asking for that reason, but I had no particular game reference, nor immediate need, but I love seeing what the wide and varied education levels of this place has to offer. Any information I get on inflected, uninflected, tonal, atonal languages eventually feeds some wonky idea I might have some day.

So if Slaraceian is atonal, how would that work?

 

[Joker]

Well, at first, I saw "infected language" and have thought of something wonky, like the slarecian language virus in the SL, or the dark speech from the BoVD. A discussion on that idea.

You're not the only one .

 

[shadow]

This was a little confusing to me since in terms of linguistics,"inflection" means changing the suffixes on nouns and verbs to conjugate them (eg, go, goes, going, etc.). However, you are talking abot intonation.
Different languages have different intonation schemes. In English the intonation doesn't usually effect the meaning of the word. However, in sentences different intonation contures can effect the overall meaning of a sentence. (A rising intonation contour usually indicates a question, whereas a fall in conture can indicate a statement or request.) Languages like Chinese, rely on intonation for the meaning of words. Different intonation can completely change the meaning of the word. However, all human languages have intonation. Whether or not the intonation effects the meaning of the individual word depends on the individual language.