Ornitholinguistics (Or avilinguistics, if one prefers)

Off Topic
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This thread is dedicated to the study of Ornitholinguistics (Avilinguistics), aka, The study of bird-talk. We call it Ornitholinguistics, because it sounds smart, and not like we are deranged lunatics (although some of us are)

Dumatellese (Carolinensis dialect)
Danger- ê(h:)rrj’

Rules for phonetics: under progress
(h:) indicates the word is breathy
(x:) indicates the word is creaky
Diacritics represent the Tone

Vowels: (Incomplete)
a
e
i
j (an i with a subtle y sound)
o
u

Consonants (incomplete)
r
(hw)

Birds have an interesting vocal tract. unlike humans, they have a syrinx, which is what they use instead of a larynx (which they do not have. Humans have a trachea with the larynx on top, while birds have a trachea with the two syrinx below. This syrinx has two chambers, and this allows some birds to make two pitches/sounds at once. What this means is a new writing system is necessary, with two lines in which the phonemes will be represented on. The example in Dumatellese (catbird language) is incomplete, as a proper spectrogram is needed to identify each sound, along with other equipment

This has much work to do, but with enough effort we will catalog every word of every language.

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Script for Biphonic sounds

[___________
[___________

These two lines are the two syrinx of the bird. consonants should be placed between the lines, since their location of articulation is in the mouth, not the syrinx. This will apply to non-song vocalizations, as if it is in song form, a standard musical clef notation will be necessary, with some small modifications

Vowels (short example]
a short, no tone
à falling tone
á rising tone
â rising +falling tone
ã nasalisation, or, if found to not exist, will be used to represent is as quiet

~ can be stacked with the other tone markers

an apostraphy ['] will be used to indicate a break, or, in our equivelant sound, a glottal stop.
Example
'a
‘á
a’
ã’â

a colon ( : ) is used to represent vowel length.
an inverted breve ( ̑ ) is used to represent loudness
a w̨ is representative of a partial silent letter. It shall furtherhere be called a halbstimme (half-voice)
Crude word: “k-kaw!”

Transliterated: kə’kâ̑:w̨

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:man_shrugging:t2:. My brother had an african grey parrot that knew hundreds of words, phrases, and sounds.

Thats as much as I know about that.

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Pitch artifacts need to be accounted for.

For a crude example, lets define some pitches:
Pitch 1 -Low
Pitch 2- Low-Medium
Pitch 3- medium
Pitch 4- Medium-High
Pitch 5- High

Example 1:
ká(3,4)
A basic medium to medium-high tone. No voice break
Example 2:
ká(3,5)
A sharper increase in tone, as the vowel is the same length
Example 3:
ká(3’5)
This is not the same as example 3, as indicated as the glottal pitch change. An alternate way of notation ká(3’5) is ka3’a5. Similar to math (though do NOT be carried away by similarity, modifying other words), it shows a distributive effect, where the á goes into the 3 and the 5.

This is necessary for precise transliteration of avian words.

The example in Post_#00001, previous stated as [ ê(h:)rrj’ ] can be corrected

ê(2’4,2)((h:)rrj’
the 2’4 represents the initial break-rise (identified by the ^ above the e, and the ’ between the 2 and the 4)) and the -,2 represents the standard pitch fall, without a break.

Symbols could be added to represent the pitches, but, it will have to be decided.

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Is whistling at a hot woman considered bird talk…or how about calling your dog with a whistle?

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No, as neither the speaker nor the audience are birds, nor is it a specific avian language. Now, if you tell a bird in a specific avian language something, then yes.

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Using some logic, pitch markers have been made. They go under the vowel/syllable/word.

Example vowels:

a̯ Pitch 1- Low
a̯̣ Pitch 2- Medium/Low
ḁ Pitch 3- Medium
ạ̮ Pitch 4- Medium High
a̮ Pitch 5- High

a̩ this symbol represent a tone break (not to be confused with a ['] which is a sound break. This is for the scenario outlined in the word ê(2’4,2)((h:)rrj
This word would now be written ê̯̣h̩:ṛ̮͡r̯̣j

r͡r is a glottal r

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Oh man, I’m really anxious to see how long you can keep this up.

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In the case of a short but tonally complex syllable, some way of indicating it is necessary. This will be called an expanded letter.

Take a vowel, lets say {a}. It will contain the rising/falling, and also a rising vowel.

We can expand the vowel by using the backslash \

a becomes \aaa\ . Notice it is expanded into 3 sections, called the head, body, and tail. They are collectively called Silbenteile (german for syllable part)

Now, rules for combining rising, falling, falling/rising and rising/falling

The dual diacritic (such as ^) always comes first. The tone markers always will be prefered to be at the head and tail of the silbenteile.(Called the circum-preferential rule)

Example
\âaá\ is valid

invalid: \àáà\
This is invalid because it can be condensed to \ǎaà\ ,following the Circumpreferential rule

Unless its only a singular dual diacritic (not a combination), in which it is split following the above rule

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Yeah me too.

Recap:

à Falling tone
á Rising tone
â Rising+Falling tone
ǎ Falling+Rising tone
ā Steady tone
a no tone(This is different from ā because it is a bit shorter. it would, if I can make this example, make a 2 section Silbenteile, instead of 3. )

ã Quiet
ȃ Loud
a: long

a̯ Pitch 1- Low
a̯̣ Pitch 2- Med/low low
a̯̤ Pitch 3- Medium low
ḁ Pitch 4- Medium
a̮ Pitch 5- medium high
ạ̮ Pitch 6- Med/high high
a̤̮ Pitch 7- High
a̩ Tone break

To raise an octave, a tilde is added at the bottom (example; a̯̣̰)
To lower an octave, a low line is added at the bottom (example; a̯̣̲)

r͡r glottal r

h̥ represents a breathy/raspy syllable (notated as h̥{syllable})
b̥ represents a warbling syllable (notated as b̥{syllable})
x̥ represents a chittering, which will be built upon soon (notated as x̥{syllable})

’ represents a glottal stop

a vowel can be broken into a three segmented Silbenteile, as such
a → \aaa\

and using the Circumpreferential rule,
â → \áaà\ (not \áàa\ or \âaa\ )

Due to the fact that birds have a syrinx, comprised of two tubes with seperate timpanic membranes (similar to our vocal chords), a dual layered method of transcription is required for high accuracy.

Birds also communicate in song, so a musical scale will be used for specific instances. Any other symbols needed will be added at the bottom.

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I can call Canada Geese pretty well. Crows too. Ducks, meh kind of. But they’re not as reliant on chatter. Thats about the extent of my knowledge.

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I have started my book.
“On Avilinguistics, or; An extensive treatise on the hidden language of avian animals, by, A. A. Rönttgetski” (My pseudonym I’ll be writing under, pronounced Rone-Chet-Ski)

I have written thus:[Note that words in [-] or {-} are not written, but are either additions or edits]

Birds, which are warm-blooded feathered vertebrates, with wings, scale legs, and beaks, of class Aves, are found across the world. They communicate in various ways, although the meaning, grammar, and orthography is unknown to humans.

This treatise serves the purpose of closing this gap [in understanding], furthering the knowledge of ours. It will go over the anatomy of the avian vocal system, the ways in which sound is produced, the way such sounds are to be properly transcribed, and the grammar/orthographic rules.

Chapter 1: The anatomy of Avian vocal systems

Birds, unlike humans, lack a larynx. Instead, they have what is called a syrinx. The syrinx is an organ situated below the trachea, unlike the human larynx, which lies above it. This organ is comprised of two tubes, equal in character, yet can be functioned [is this a word? what can I use to replace this with] independently [of] {replace from} each other.

|Diagram 1|
As seen in diagram 1, the syrinx contains two sets of syringeal (also called timpanic) membranes. These serve the function of vocal chords, which a bird lacks {Perhaps change to “which is lacking in birds”). This allows the bird to:
-create two tones at once
-rapidly change the sounded tone {change to "change between tones}

As the bird releases the air from the lunges, it is able to vibrate the tympanic membranes, This, in combination with tongue placement, [a]effects the sound produced.

|Diagram 2| This section can be changed some

This diagram shows the external-side view of the avian mouth (bill). We can deduce from this diagram {change to “image”} some impossible sounds that a bird could make {This needs to be changed, it sounds very rough. Perhaps "… from this diagram sounds that a bird is unable to make}

  1. due to a lack of lips, standard Bilabial and labiodental sounds can not be made
  2. However, dental (or pseudodental, see note 1) sounds, back to Velar sounds (and likely Uvelar) sound are possible {Change to “This gives us a possible range of producible phonemes from the Dental to the Uvelar regions. Pseudo dental sounds are also possible (see Note 1)”}
  3. Due to a lack of lips, birds can not form vowels in the proper manner, as humans do. They must rely on tongue placement and the amount of opening in the beak

|Diagram 3| (Front view of bird mouth, open)

Due to lack of teeth, birds are unable to produce dental sounds. However, as stated at Note 1, a pseudodental/pseudolabial sound could be produced.{I should add more in this section, as it is quite short

{This section from Diag. 2-3 must be revised and edited, as it could flow much better}

_
Thus the avian species’ vocal ability is limited to:

  1. Glottal
  2. Pseudodental/Pseudolabial (Henceforth called Rostrumial)
    …

Of course it is still in progress. I can’t expect to write a chapter in a day with all I do.

Feel free to make suggestions with grammar/word choice. I will be asking my English teacher about it tomorrow, if I have a chance.

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When I’m in the woods I can kind of equate some bird noises to words. Cardinals are a low whistle that peaks up and sounds like “bird-ie!.” Robins sound uninterested like “Cheer-up.” Chicadees sound like they’re saying “Phoebe” from Friends.

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These are some examples of what i aim to transcribe. For example, all of those examples (except for cardinals, I can hear the “bird-ie”) sound NOTHING like what you said. Same goes with other examples of poorly transcribed bird sounds. There is literally NO real structure/consistent orthography of bird sounds. That’s what my study of Avilinguistics seeks to fix.

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I’ve heard quite a few mimic cell phones. It was kinda weird at first, a long time ago when it started. I’d stand still for a minute to see who else was around, or any movement. Nothing. Nobody but the birds.

Then it became more frequent, and I figured it had to be the birds mimicking.

Now I’m just like “Yeah, must be a samsung piliated woodpecker.”.

Do you differentiate between human influenced mimicry and their unmodified language?

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If one wishes to communicate with birds, one would have to consider those noises as “loanwords”. Same with normal languages.

Update to Book

Notation of Vowels

Due to the fact that birds are able to make two sounds at once, a two layers notation is necessary for quality transcription

Along with that, vowels should be notated in a different way.
{There is a chart In the book I will post a picture here eventually}

Due to a lack of lips, birds can not articulate vowels in the standard manner. TO model how they would create vowel sounds, one only needs to look at human ventriloquists. Instead of relying on lip rounding, tongue placement needs to be used{this should be changed}. Fig 2 shows symbols correlating to the tongue placement within the mouth. These symbols are then combined with the symbols found in Fig 1, producing the following combinations

{Figure 3}

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Not much was written today. I have run out of things I can write without actually going into practical Avilinguistics, as all that is here is theoretical.