A language where you sing?

[TurtIe Tracks]

I'm sure this has crossed everyone's mind at some point or another, but has anyone attempted and/or plans to attempt to make a language that involves pitch? Not just tones, but actual notes? If you only used the sharps and flats (black keys on a piano) then I'm pretty sure it wouldn't clash.

(I realize the major setbacks of such a language, but someone may have done it? I would love to hear something like this, so please tell me if you know of one. biggrin )


Edit: I believe the scale I mentioned is called the platonic scale... used in traditional chinese music?  

[Henneth Annun]

I just thought about something like this the other day, but it would be a langauge spoken by creatures who had multiple vocal systems so they could sing not only in notes, but in chords too.

Their langauge would have something to do with scales for different tenses and much of it would be beyond the range of human hearing, so you could only hear maybe half or a third of the langauge.

And in their vocal systems they could make sounds from woodwinds, brass instruments, or percussion ones. I didn't think about what that would signify yet though... xd  

[Mizenki]

Solresol is a musical language, with a set number of morphemes and the like. Wikipedia it, it's rather interesting. =]

 

[JeSuisMustapha]

That actually is very interesting. I know I have had this thought before, even muddling it up a bit more, if possible. I had an extreme idea that would be fantastic, but that I would totally fail at. There would be a language that could be communicated with notes, pitches, tempo, and what not: all of the components of music. And then they could also speak another language, like, say, English. When singing, they would be communicating two messages at once! In two entirely different languages! Simultaneously! It seriously just blows my mind! Like if some body did not know the singing language, those who did could talk with each other about random stuff and still be conveying an entirely different conversation without the third party knowing! I would love to do this some day, because the singing could be used simultaneously with any spoken language. Unfortunately I am neither musically inclined nor good at creating cconlangues, but I do my best sweatdrop  

[Eollodwyn]

JeSuisMustapha

That actually is very interesting. I know I have had this thought before, even muddling it up a bit more, if possible. I had an extreme idea that would be fantastic, but that I would totally fail at. There would be a language that could be communicated with notes, pitches, tempo, and what not: all of the components of music. And then they could also speak another language, like, say, English. When singing, they would be communicating two messages at once! In two entirely different languages! Simultaneously! It seriously just blows my mind! Like if some body did not know the singing language, those who did could talk with each other about random stuff and still be conveying an entirely different conversation without the third party knowing! I would love to do this some day, because the singing could be used simultaneously with any spoken language. Unfortunately I am neither musically inclined nor good at creating cconlangues, but I do my best sweatdrop

That sounds like a really amazing idea, but I wonder how possible it is neurologically. To process two languages at once is not easy. I find it very difficult to simultaneously speak in one language and listen to (and understand) another, so I wonder if it would be very difficult to communicate in two separate ones at the same time.  

[Homurakitsune]

JeSuisMustapha

That actually is very interesting. I know I have had this thought before, even muddling it up a bit more, if possible. I had an extreme idea that would be fantastic, but that I would totally fail at. There would be a language that could be communicated with notes, pitches, tempo, and what not: all of the components of music. And then they could also speak another language, like, say, English. When singing, they would be communicating two messages at once! In two entirely different languages! Simultaneously! It seriously just blows my mind! Like if some body did not know the singing language, those who did could talk with each other about random stuff and still be conveying an entirely different conversation without the third party knowing! I would love to do this some day, because the singing could be used simultaneously with any spoken language. Unfortunately I am neither musically inclined nor good at creating cconlangues, but I do my best sweatdrop

That sounds really freaking cool.

GO DO IT.  

[TurtIe Tracks]

JeSuisMustapha

That actually is very interesting. I know I have had this thought before, even muddling it up a bit more, if possible. I had an extreme idea that would be fantastic, but that I would totally fail at. There would be a language that could be communicated with notes, pitches, tempo, and what not: all of the components of music. And then they could also speak another language, like, say, English. When singing, they would be communicating two messages at once! In two entirely different languages! Simultaneously! It seriously just blows my mind! Like if some body did not know the singing language, those who did could talk with each other about random stuff and still be conveying an entirely different conversation without the third party knowing! I would love to do this some day, because the singing could be used simultaneously with any spoken language. Unfortunately I am neither musically inclined nor good at creating cconlangues, but I do my best sweatdrop

That... would be amazing. Someone here make this NAO! >__>

@Mizenki: This is actually really interesting. I really want to learn this but I'm already learning three languages (only 2 seriously though...) and making one. sad sad sad Maybe I should try to learn it in Spanish class instead of make my conlang. (the one language I am required to learn, whereas the other 2 are voluntary)

I even found a site teaching it step by step. T^T Anyway thank you a lot (really!!) for showing me this.  

[Woglinde]

I remember a conlang similar to what you mentioned was mentioned somewhere in my Esperanto textbook.... (probably the introduction)
Come to think of it, what DID I do with that? *Goes to look for it*  

[Atrum Faustus]

I just recently found out about a language called Silbo, where people on a certain island use whistles to communicate across distances.

More about it, with a YouTube sample...  

[TurtIe Tracks]

Atrum Faustus

I just recently found out about a language called Silbo, where people on a certain island use whistles to communicate across distances.

More about it, with a YouTube sample...

Now THAT is awesome. O__O

...it kind of makes me wonder about birds. I mean their calls seem like random notes but so does that language. Maybe birds are actually talking to each other? (I'm probably an idiot but I think it's interesting.)

That also just gave me a conlang/conculture idea. biggrin

But anyway I think it's pretty cool how that would come about naturally, and neat thinking about how people adapt their languages to their needs. Thanks for sharing. smile  

[Czarevich]

Not quite a singing language, but I've been inspired to create a musical language that operates entirely off of piano tones. I'll be organizing it as a basic syllabary (for simplicity's sake--each "phoneme" will be a coupling of two sounds, with the exception of the singular vowels, for a total of 12 basic distinct phonemes) with meaning differing based on tonal range. I've decided to use flats and sharps as grammatical constructs (most likely separated by an octave or so to make it easier to distinguish).

BA BE
CA CE
DA DE
FA FE
GA GE
A E

And then the sharps and flats.

 

[The Archer12]

Hi! First post here!!

Anyway, I had often thought Dolphins communicate similar to this, as do Birds.

BTW, I like the dual message, one in song, the other in the words idea!!That would be some serious mental multitasking!!  

[Tequila Lollipops]

I don't think the singing and speaking english would take THAT much mental acuity. Just SING....in ENGLISH. Trying to understand, on the other hand, I think that would take much more thought. You would have to ignore the words and focus solely on the notes and such.  

[Layra-chan]

Just a note: birdsong doesn't actually really use melody as linguistic communication, anymore than someone humming is linguistic communication. There's a message being passed, but the melody itself is largely irrelevant.
Most songbirds don't really learn more than one or two melodies naturally, and it's usually somewhat genetic.  

[Maggoty Anne]

Being tone deaf would become a severe speech impediment, that's for sure. mrgreen

JeSuisMustapha

And then they could also speak another language, like, say, English. When singing, they would be communicating two messages at once! In two entirely different languages! Simultaneously! It seriously just blows my mind!

But remember how intonation is used in English to convey meaning? Like how you raise your pitch a little at the end of a sentence when you ask a question? How would you prevent everything being said in English from becoming a statement?