expressives update

[Jess Tauber]

Hello. As many of you already know I've been assembling expressives data from
languages across Eurasia for a comparative study. I am already able to report
some preliminary findings concerning phonosemantic organization within
particular sets mapping to various semantic domains.

For instance, in Munda, Mon-Khmer, Mongolian, within posture/shape terms,
there is a concentration of items beginning with velars associating with
semi-erect posture (generally arcing over away from some force behind,
straining to get away- like a dog on a leash or the way a quadruped's neck
muscles strain to lift the head).

Cross domain connections abound- one particularly stands out: the equation of
gaits and mastication. Ground texture equals food texture, feet and clothing
equal hard and soft oral instrumentalities (teeth, lips, tongue, velum, etc).
Straining in gait against a refractory substratum naturally parallels
straining to process refractory food items.

There is also some sort of general body-map plan to expressives at least in
Munda: the C1 associates with the leading edge of any abstract or literal
body, the final C with whatever trailing edge you care to name (feet, tail,
garments, etc.). Such organization is also found in the Americas in bipartite
stem languages, but based on a slightly different plan. This may be important
as both types may ultimately arise from similar sesquisyllabic ancestors.

I'll be putting up all the data in a publicly accessible web page, if
anyone's interested.

Jess Tauber
zylogy at aol.com