Piraha, Uoiauai (was: Seen on alt.language.artificial)

From: Jacques Guy (jguy_at_alphalink.com.au)
Date: 03/12/05

  • Next message: Philip Deitiker: "Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)" 
    Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:24:47 +1000

    António Marques wrote:
    >
    > Jacques Guy wrote:
    >
    > > If it smells like a hoax, feels like a hoax, looks like
    > > a hoax,sounds like a hoax... what is it?
     
    > Ah, but it's a *poor* hoax.

    When I did my PhD I was tempted to invent the language
    which was the topic of my thesis. Almost nothing was known
    about it. My thesis supervisors even doubted that it was
    Austronesian. But I decided that it would be too much
    hard work. Much easier to learn and describe the real
    language. If I had made it up, however, I would have
    made it internally consistent, not like _this_. I gave
    a few examples of Piraha inconsistencies on the Voynich
    group (two messages, which you'll find half-way down
    the first page of Google answers to "piraha").

    So far I have come across six texts, two of which
    are practically still unanalyzed (follow the links
    I give in my message at voynich.net). After 25 years
    of field work, that's a bit... slim.

    > So poor indeed that one thinks it can't be a
    > real hoax!

    Take a look at those texts:

    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001009234649/http://amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/Martins.html"
    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001009234649/http://amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/Opisi.html"
    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001009234649/http://amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/kato.html"
    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001009234649/http://amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/spirits.html"
    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001009234649/http://amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/anaconda.html"
    "http://lings.ln.man.ac.uk/info/staff/DE/panther.pdf"

    And then, have a look at the phonemic statement:

    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001009114233/amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/lang.html"

    And at the "dictionary"

    "http://web.archive.org/web/20001109203800/amazonling.linguist.pitt.edu/dictionary.html"

    Sure, it warns you that "this is a preliminary dictionary". Pity,
    because if it was
    anywhere near a "more complete" dictionary Piraha could boast not only
    the smallest
    phonemic inventory, but also the smallest vocabulary.

    As for the other one, Voiauai or Uoiauai in Brazil "which consists
    only of 7 vowels and has no consonants", I found the source of the
    mystery. It turns up in various collection of word oddities
    as one of the longest words composed entirely of vowels.
    Some bright bulb apparently figured out that the language
    itself had seven vowels and no consonants. By that
    reasoning French has only three consonants and two vowels.

  • Next message: Philip Deitiker: "Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Plausibility Check
      ... Just because a language has changed doesn't mean that the writing ... Some languages have relatively stable consonants over time, but shift ... vowels a lot, others have the reverse (Polynesian and Slavic ...
      (sci.lang)
    • Re: Three conversions from belief here (due to science)
      ... to make sure your culture differs from Germanic as much as possible? ... Welsh for an example of a language that really is too vowel-happy. ... of thing where there would be only consonants. ... Also in Czech language there are names without vowels. ...
      (talk.origins)
    • Re: Piraha, Uoiauai (was: Seen on alt.language.artificial)
      ... > When I did my PhD I was tempted to invent the language ... > as one of the longest words composed entirely of vowels. ... > itself had seven vowels and no consonants. ...
      (sci.lang)
    • Re: Three conversions from belief here (due to science)
      ... to make sure your culture differs from Germanic as much as possible? ... I think the ratio of consonants to vowels in Finnish isn't really all ... Welsh for an example of a language that really is too vowel-happy. ... Also in Czech language there are names without vowels. ...
      (talk.origins)
    • Re: Seen on alt.language.artificial
      ... > to be seen in Ethnologue. ... A language name does not have to be in the language. ... If it smells like a hoax, feels like a hoax, looks like ...
      (sci.lang)
    Loading