Timeline for Human-level Vocalization through insect-like methods. Possible or absurd?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Jun 22, 2021 at 13:32 | comment | added | ProjectApex | I see. Thanks a lot for the advice. I will still wait a while for other potential answers however, simply because now I'm very interested in knowing if such structures could actually develop in an organism like mine. It would help the story in a way or another and give them some extra "flavour" (after all, cicadas evolved to essentially function as living instruments, so who knows?). | |
| Jun 22, 2021 at 13:25 | comment | added | Matthew | @ProjectApex, that's probably plenty of time for a pidgin to develop, if there's a reason for it to become widespread. (It is absolutely not enough time for them to develop a biological ability that didn't already exist.) Another (low-tech) option, if literacy is wide-spread, would be for them to carry a wax tablet and communicate by writing, although this isn't very efficient compared to speech. Alternatively, you could "cheat" and have the other races already using a language (whistling and/or rhythmic) that your insect-people can reproduce. | |
| Jun 22, 2021 at 13:15 | comment | added | ProjectApex | Well in the lore I created, they would've appeared recently (500 years ago max), and would've entered in contact with other humanoids soon after. The reason I want them to be able to speak properly is so a character from this race didn't suffer from "kenku syndrome" (people usually can't understand what they're saying) and that was able to "catch up" on an already developed world with a common language made without their participation. Was it not for this problematic need I would have already accepted your first answer (even through they do have a language that can't be really translated). | |
| Jun 22, 2021 at 12:35 | comment | added | Matthew | @ProjectApex, ah, that would be an important distinction. Are we also dealing with races that have known about each other for a long time? The usual way of handling this I see in fiction is to use a pidgin that is understandable by all races that need to communicate with each other. | |
| Jun 21, 2021 at 21:59 | comment | added | ProjectApex | I would point out that the setting I'm working on is closer to a more classic fantasy medieval setting. But honestly the only difference between a world with magic machines and one with sci-fi technology is that the former doesn't try to come up with technobabble instead of just admitting that it all works on magic. | |
| Jun 21, 2021 at 13:43 | history | answered | Matthew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |