Timeline for Tongueless: Are complex sounds possible?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 8, 2020 at 13:18 | vote | accept | Frostfyre | ||
| Sep 3, 2020 at 4:36 | comment | added | NomadMaker | We use a tongue, but an alien creature can use all sorts of different types of vocal apparatus. Will the aliens eat through this vocalizer? | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 22:37 | answer | added | Logan R. Kearsley | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 22:22 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Sep 2, 2020 at 19:16 | answer | added | Nosajimiki | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 19:14 | comment | added | Zeiss Ikon | @Frostfyre "(1) If you can design a biological loudspeaker, that may be a valid answer." Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein -- Martians, at least the little ball-shaped ones, speak and hear with the same organ, a directly muscle-controlled tympanum. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 19:10 | answer | added | Zeiss Ikon | timeline score: 14 | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 18:45 | answer | added | Michael Stachowsky | timeline score: 4 | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 17:54 | comment | added | IronEagle | You could look at the various whistling languages, tones are probably a better basis than phonemes in your case. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:43 | comment | added | Jeff Zeitlin | On the other hand, if you want to go in an entirely different direction, with more limited 'shapes' for sounds, but with frequency (pitch) carrying meaning, you might be able to manage with a vocal apparatus that works more like drums or violins. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:41 | comment | added | Jeff Zeitlin | If you are going to insist on being able to produce the same sort of range of sounds that a human vocal apparatus can produce, you might find yourself limited to a vocal apparatus similar to the human, which would include a tongue. However, if a different set of sounds, perhaps more limited, is acceptable, you might not need the tongue - as an example, if the only 'plosives' in your phoneme set are /b/ and /p/, you wouldn't necessarily need a tongue, as those sounds are created with the lips only (unlike /t/ and /d/ which do require the tongue). | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:27 | comment | added | user78658 | Im not sure how correct or offensive this is but when some deaf people speak they dont move their tongue but try to make the same noises, I think they mimic the mouth movement but dont know what the tongue is doing to make the correct sound, I think a throat that can close or some tongue like appendage to mimic how the tongue changes the sound might be needed for full articulation. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:16 | comment | added | Frostfyre | @AlexP Is your complaint that you know the answer, so I shouldn't be asking the question? | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:14 | comment | added | Frostfyre | @AlexP (1) If you can design a biological loudspeaker, that may be a valid answer. (2) Literally the next paragraph in the first article I linked refutes your claim: "The fact that the tongue is essential for speaking can also be seen in the ability of parrots to imitate human language." (3) Because I want an answer to the question and biology isn't my forte. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:12 | comment | added | Frostfyre | @Erik The former; I'm looking for an audio structure that doesn't necessarily use vocal chords to produce complex communication, if possible. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:08 | comment | added | Erik | Are you asking, whether complex audio-based communication would be possible, or whether audio-signals produce using vocal chords and a throat can compete in complexity with our vocal abilities? Asking, because there are probably a lot options to produce sounds which need neither vocal chords nor a tongue. | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 14:03 | comment | added | user78658 | An elephants trunk may produce enough varying sounds that they can understand? | |
| Sep 2, 2020 at 13:59 | history | asked | Frostfyre | CC BY-SA 4.0 |