Diamond, Arthur S. 1959. History and Origin of Language, Methuen.
I have thought of this old book when I have read your message

----- Mensaje original -----
De: yahganlang <phonosemantics@...>
Fecha: Sábado, Febrero 2, 2008 4:16 ombr
Asunto: [langev] Anyone know of programs/programming languages dealing with
physics/mechanics?
A: langev@yahoogroups.com


> Hi folks. I'm working with large size ideophone systems from natural
> languages. I'd like to model some of the qualitative and qualitative
> features of these systems to see how true they are to combinatorics.
>
> Some languages have many thousands of these terms- Korean, Japanese,
> Zulu, and Santali (a Munda language from N.E. India) have such high
> numbers.
>
> In many cases the terms are physicomechanical in connotation. For
> instance /l/-initial ideophones in Santali seem usually to connote
> smooth viscoelastic transfer of energy or masses capable of doing
> this. Each phonological feature added to the mix delimits the meanings
> so encoded. Add a terminal /k/ or /k'/ or /ng/, and a
> vibrational/reflective sense is added. And intermediate materials
> nuance the senses further.
>
> The systematicity is diagrammatically iconic in nature, taking its cue
> from the structure of the phonology itself.
>
> In any case, without belaboring the specifics, what I want to know is
> if any of you have used programs or languages that would allow one to
> create a computational model of such relations- on both the
> diagrammatical iconic side as well as the physicomechanical mapping.
>
> Thanks much.
> Jess Tauber
> phonosemantics@...
>