Handbook of Semiotics

Language Substitutes

Language Substitutes Language substitutes are secondary codes whose signs are molded on the model of a primary linguistic code. Since there are several degrees of dependence between verbal languages and other language-based codes, the semiotic field under consideration has been defined in broader and in narrower ways. This handbook adopts the narrower definition : language substitutes include speech surrogates , such as drum and whistle languages, as derivatives of speech, and various alphabetic codes as derivatives of writing. In contradistinction to such heteronomous codes, sign languages, writing systems, and universal languages have a higher degree of semiotic autonomy in relation to the primary code of natural, spoken language and are therefore not included as language substitutes (in contradistinction to definitions proposed by several other authors; cf. 3.). 1. Speech Surrogates Drum and whistle languages are the speech surrogates which have so far received most scholarly attention, but there are other substitutes of spoken individual languages which may also be classified as speech surrogates. 1.1 Survey of Drum and Whistle Languages Drum and whistle languages are archaic speech substitutes used mostly for telecommunication . Discovered and studied since the nineteenth century by anthropologists and linguists, these codes seem to be dying out in this century (cf. Busnel &. Classe 1976: 108; but see Sebeok &. Umiker-Sebeok, eds. 1976: xxiii on new discoveries). A monument of research in this field is the collection of studies by Sebeok &. Umiker-Sebeok, eds. (1976). Busnel &. Classe (1976) have done a thorough phonetic study of whistle languages. 1.1.1 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION Drum languages have been reported primarily from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Whistle languages were discovered in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and Europe. Busnel & Classe's (1976) studies deal with systems used in mountainous regions of the Canaries (La Gomera), Turkey (Kuskoy), Mexico (Oaxaca), and the Pyrenees (Aas), where the "speakers" are usually in sight of each other but separated by a valley. 1.1.2 COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS The primary function of these codes is telecommunication . According to Busnel &. Classe, whistled signals can be exchanged in valleys 1. SPEECH SURROGATES • 287 over distances from two hundred meters up to two thousand meters (1976: 28). The range can be extended up to ten kilometers by the use of a shell for signal production. Valen reports a range of ten kilometers and more for drum signals (1955: 747). The range of these signals can be extended by continued transmissions of the message via "relay stations." The modem technologies of communication have largely, but not yet completely, replaced signal drums as a means of telecommunication. A few other functions of drum and whistle languages are known. For example, Mexican Kickapoo whistle speech is restricted to courtship (Taylor 1975: 358), and the Cuban iiaiiigos are said to have used whistled speech as a secret language (Busnel & Classe 1976: 22). Drum languages have a variety of other functions, especially ritual and entertainment (musical or poetic). 1.1.3 TYPOLOGY Of SYSTEMS Following Stern (1957: 130) and Umiker (1974: 497-98), the major systems of drum and whistle languages can be summarized as follows: 1. instrumental systems (a) wind instruments (esp. whistles, horns, flutes) (b) percussive instruments (membrane drums, slit gongs, xylophones, etc.) (c) string instruments 2. somatic systems (1) without voice (whistling) (2) with voice (humming, syllabic calling, falsetto) 1.2 Semiotic Structures of Drum and Whistle Languages Stern (1957: 125) and Umiker (1974: 499) distinguish two basic principles of speech substitution in drum and whistle systems, which they call encoding and abridgement. 1.2.1 SYMBOLIC ENCODING Encoding uses arbitrary acoustic symbols, which have no similarity to the sound structure of the base language (as in Morse; cf. 2.1.1). 288 • LANGUAGE SUBSTITUTES Drum languages are only partly based on encoding and are otherwise iconic. Whistle languages are in principle iconic. When a drum language uses signals which represent words (''lexical logograms," as discussed by Umiker [1974: 499-502]) and not only phonemes (or letters, as in Morse), the code might be considered 'a direct and not a substitutive Signaling system (cf. Taylor 1975; see also 3.1.1 on direct and indirect semiosis). 1.2.2 ICONIC ABRIDGEMENT Speech surrogates based on the principle of abridgement use acoustic signs which resemble the sounds of their base language. This iconic mode of representation always implies a simplification of the phonetics of the base message (not necessarily a shortening, as the term abridgement suggests). A high degree of acoustic iconicity is attained in whistle languages. According to Busnel...