Aldiss, Brian The Dark Light Years v11

Archiwum

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sounds are the same sound delivered at a different pitch. You may know that there are terrestrial linguistic
systems such as - er. Siamese and Cantonese which employ six acoustic pitches. And we can expect
many more pitches with these fellows, who obviously range very freely over the sound spectrum.
"The human ear is deaf to vibrations of frequency greater than somewhere about 24,000 a second.
We have found that these chaps can go twice that, just as a ter-restrial bat or a Rungstedian cat can. So
one problem is that if we are to converse with them, we must get them to stay within our wavelength. For
all we know, that may mean they would have to invent a sort of pidgin language that we could
understand."
"I protest," said the statistician, who until now had been content to do little but run his tongue round his
teeth. "You are now inferring, surely, that we are inferior to them."
"I'm saying nothing of the kind. I'm saying that their range of sound is very much greater than ours.
Now, Mr. Brebner here is going to give us a few of the phonemes that we have provisionally identified."
Mr. Brebner rose and stood swaying beside the stocky figure of Bodley Temple. He was in his
mid-twenties, a slight figure with pale yellow hair, wearing a light greysuit with the hood down. His face
was suffused a delicate flame colour with the embarrassment of confronting his audience, but he spoke up
well.
"The dissections on the dead aliens have told us quite a lot about their anatomy," he said. "If you have
read the rather lengthy report, you will know that our friends have three distinct classes of apertures
through which they pro-duce their characteristic noises. All these noises appear to contribute to their
language, or we assume they do, just as we assume they have a language.
"First, they have in one of their heads a mouth, to which is linked a scent organ. Although this mouth is
used for breathing, its main function is feeding and making what we term the oral sounds.
"Secondly, our friends have six breathing vents, three on either side of their body, and situated above
their six limbs. At present we refer to these as the nostrils. They are labiate apertures and although
unconnected to any vocal chords - as is the mouth - these nostrils produce a wide range of sounds.
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"Thirdly, our friends also produce a variety of con-trolled sound through the rectum situated in their
second head.
"Their form of speech consists of sound transmitted through all these apertures, either in turn, or any
two together, or all three classes together, or all eight aper-tures together. You will see then that the few
sounds I am now going to give you as examples are limited to the less complex ones. Tape recordings of
the whole range are of course available, but are not in a very manageable form as yet. "The first word is
nnnnorrrr- INK."
To pronounce this word, Wilfred Brebner ran a light snore over the front of his throat and chased it
with the little squeak represented here as "ink". (All printed forms of the alien language used throughout
this book aresimilarly to be treated as mere approximations.)
Brebner continued with his exposition.
"Nnnnorrrr-INKis the word we have obtained several times in various contexts. Dr. Bodley Temple
recorded it first last Saturday, when he brought our friends a fresh cabbage. We obtained it a second
time on Saturday when I took out a packet of chewing plastic and gave pieces to Dr. Temple and to
Mike. We did not hear it again till Tuesday afternoon, when it was pronounced in a situation when food
was not present. Chief Keeper Ross had entered the cage where we were to see if we needed any-thing,
and both creatures made the sound at the same time. We then noted that the word might have a negative
con-notation, since they had refused the cabbage, and had not been offered the chew - which they would
presume to be food - and might be supposed not to like Ross, who dis-turbs them when he cleans out
their cage. Yesterday, how-ever, Ross brought them a bucket of river mud. which they like, and then we
recordednnnnorrrr- INKagain, several times in five minutes. So we think at present that it refers to some
variety of human activity: appearing bearing something, shall we say. The meaning will be fined down
considerably as we go along. From this example you can see the process of elimination we go through
with every sound.
"The bucket of river mud also brought forth another word we can recognize. This sounds like WHIP
-bwut-bwip(a small whistle followed by two pouting labials). We have also heard it when grapefruit has
been accepted, when porridge with sliced banana in - a dish over which they show some enthusiasm -
has been accepted, and when Mike and I have been leaving in the evening. We take it therefore to be a
sign of approval.
"We also think we have a sign of disapproval, although we have only heard it twice. Once it was
accompanied by a gesture of disapproval, when an under-keeper caughtone of our friends on the snout
with a jet of water from a hose. On the other occasion, we had offered them fish, some cooked, some
raw. As you are aware, they seem to be vegetarians. The sound was -"
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Brebner glanced apologetically at Mrs. Warhoon as he blew a series of damp farts with his mouth,
culminating with an open-mouthed groan.
"Bbbp-bbbp-bbbp-bbbp-aaaah."
"It certainly sounds like disapproval," Temple said.
Before the ripple of amusement died, one of the reporters said, "Dr. Temple, is this all you have to
offer in the way of progress?"
"You have been given a rough guide to what we are doing."
"But you don't seem to have a single one of their words definitely. Why couldn't you tackle what any
lay-man would think would be the first steps, like getting them to count, and to name parts of their bodies
and yours? Then at least you have something to begin on, rather than a few abstracts like 'Appearing
carrying something'."
Temple looked down at the Purple Emperors on his waistcoat, munched his lips, and then said, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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