Poem: "Clear as a Whistle"
Oct. 9th, 2020 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is the freebie for the October 6, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by an anonymous prompt. It belongs to a new series, the Sounds of Civilization. It is followed by "And Then It Clicked" and "The Flesh of Many Voices."
"Clear as a Whistle"
When aliens made first contact,
at first everyone was excited.
The Avari diplomats looked like
birds, with lovely rainbow feathers
and beaks of different shapes.
Then people realized that
they could not understand
the diplomats, and that
the aliens could not speak
human languages either.
It was frustrating as they
tried to work out agreements
through the use of computers
to translate between languages.
It was not until a diplomat
overheard two of the servers
calling to each other that anyone
discovered a language in common.
Silbo Gomero was based on
Spanish, transmuted from
spoken words to whistling.
It was nowhere near
as common as Spanish,
spoken only by silbadores
in the Canary Islands.
The Avari diplomats
took to it easily, though,
and soon it caught on
among more humans.
Finally, first contact was
as clear as a whistle.
* * *
Notes:
First contact poses many barriers to communication. While science fiction often handwaves these barriers, sometimes it's fun to accentuate them instead.
Silbo Gomero is a whistled version of Spanish, although whistle-coding likely predates the Spanish invasion and thus the language has different roots from its current incarnation. Its speakers are called silbadores. Enjoy a video about it.
"Clear as a Whistle"
When aliens made first contact,
at first everyone was excited.
The Avari diplomats looked like
birds, with lovely rainbow feathers
and beaks of different shapes.
Then people realized that
they could not understand
the diplomats, and that
the aliens could not speak
human languages either.
It was frustrating as they
tried to work out agreements
through the use of computers
to translate between languages.
It was not until a diplomat
overheard two of the servers
calling to each other that anyone
discovered a language in common.
Silbo Gomero was based on
Spanish, transmuted from
spoken words to whistling.
It was nowhere near
as common as Spanish,
spoken only by silbadores
in the Canary Islands.
The Avari diplomats
took to it easily, though,
and soon it caught on
among more humans.
Finally, first contact was
as clear as a whistle.
* * *
Notes:
First contact poses many barriers to communication. While science fiction often handwaves these barriers, sometimes it's fun to accentuate them instead.
Silbo Gomero is a whistled version of Spanish, although whistle-coding likely predates the Spanish invasion and thus the language has different roots from its current incarnation. Its speakers are called silbadores. Enjoy a video about it.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-09 04:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-09 06:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-09 06:56 pm (UTC)Do we know anything about Avari evolution/environment/behavior or social structure? If they were Earth birds, 'rainbow colors' would indicate sexual dimorphism...and that the diplomatic group is all male. (Assuming their sex-and-gender stuff is similar to humans...)
Of course aliens, so:
- feathers could be designed for different visual consitions (bright red anglerfish) or eyes (ultraviolet flower markings; also see Blaschko's lines)
- males could be the limiting reproductive factor (seahorses), making females the 'look at me!' gender
- males doing dangerous stuff could be a way to show off (Jenkinsverse Gaoians, Bling of War)
- the entire species could be venomous or faking venomosity (is that a word?)
- dazzle camouflage, like zebras
- social or cosmetic modification, as pink-haired humans
- could get bright colors with age (look how long I've survived)
- could be a mixture/alliance of different species (a bluejay/flamingo/cardinal delegation would be very colorful)
(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-11 06:39 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2020-10-11 07:11 am (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2020-10-31 02:31 am (UTC)