monosyllabic (Re: Another explanation for dain daiin...)

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

22/01/02 05:26:28, Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>  * The text is in some exotic monosyllabic language.
>  
>      If it is not encrypted, then it is plaintext in an invented
>      alphabet and possibly a peculiar spelling. The word structure
>      rules out European or Near-Eastern languages, but seems to fit
>      those of East Asia, such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Tibetan, etc.

Not only in Eastern Asia are there monosyllabic languages, but also
in Africa, and they have tones too. Maya is mostly monosyllabic,
but it has this tendency to run the words of a sentence into a
single word. Some languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family
have also become mostly monosyllabic through phonological decay
(thus when ikan "fish" become just e -- yes [E] -- in Lehali,
or na-kandi becomes nar in Sakao (but Sakao also has a tendency 
to run the words of a sentence into a single word, like Maya). 

And modern Gaelic seems to be turning into a monosyllabic language.

Oh, BTW, Klingon is 99% monosyllabic...