At 11:00 PM -0400 6/8/01, Craig wrote:
No, it's not at all specific to lojban. But it's a good idea, and the last time it was tried it failed because there was not a way to be nonmusical yet still communicate, and we don't all have perfect pitch. But lojban. can be spoken, as well as sung. Also, songs could follow this optionally, or do it mostly then deviate for melodic puns, or just ignore it if they've got a better idea. What I like about it is that it gives you a musical setting for anything to work with before you make your own. Plus it's a possible experimental value for a sapir-whorf test: do musical lojbanists become more artistic than if they are taught normal, spoken lojban.?
As far as I know, there is no such effect in tonal languages.Another peculiarity of this proposal is that you can say one thing and sing another. An example of this is in Vernor Vinge's story The Peace War. The Chinese spy is contemptuous of Americans who can't tell that she is speaking in a tone code when they let her make a phone call. Mentalist acts do much the same thing using a stress code.
It has been suggested that dolphins (if they really had language) could carry on two conversations at once, one in clicks and one in whistles. David Brin would probably be interested if we could work out the analogy.
BTW what would the Lojban term for solfege be? -- Edward Cherlin Generalist "A knot!" exclaimed Alice. "Oh, do let me help to undo it." Alice in Wonderland