32.3433, Happy Halloween!

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-3433. Sun Oct 31 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.3433, Happy Halloween!

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Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2021 23:37:23
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Happy Halloween!

 
Happy Halloween everyone! This spooky season got us wondering, how exactly
does the headless horseman speak? For those who aren't familiar with the
headless horseman, the common (American) version of the myth comes from
Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and features a soldier who
lost his head and rises as a ghost to search for his missing head. In all
depictions (that I have seen), however, the headless horseman can still speak
despite having no head! Some depictions involve him using a pumpkin as a
replacement head, so if he somehow put a vocal tract in the pumpkin, I must
say that is an absolute marvel of pumpkin carving and he should win every
pumpkin carving contest ever.

This got me thinking about the other monstrous creatures of Halloween as well,
and whether/how they can produce speech. Probably the easiest are vampires and
werewolves, since they pretty much retain all their human anatomy despite
technically being undead or wolves some of the time. A little trickier are
zombies, mummies, and draugr. They still have vocal tracts but a much harder
time using them.

Things get really strange when you think about ghosts. Depictions vary whether
they can produce sound at all, but they are able to produce speech often
enough that I wonder how? They're incorporeal beings, so even if they have
vocal tracts, how do they act on the air and actually produce any sound? I've
got a couple theories. Some ghosts are able to physically effect the world
around them, meaning they could make sound as well. I think this is a boring,
easy explanation, personally. I much prefer the theory that when ghosts rise,
the sounds they made while living come with them, and whatever they're saying
is just a manifestation of the sounds they made in their past life. Perhaps
this is what the headless horseman is really doing, and his lack of a vocal
tract isn't a hindrance to him at all!

What do you think? Are there any other scary creatures with some odd methods
of producing speech? How do you think ghosts produce their dire warnings?
Thanks for joining us on this little distraction on (for some of us) our
favorite holiday. Before we say goodbye, we have just one request to make.

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