| Latest revision |
Your text |
| Line 8: |
Line 8: |
| | | | |
| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | [[File:Ipa-chart-vowels.png|thumb|200px|The standard IPA vowel chart.]]
| + | {{incomplete|Created by a ṡṡċċḣḣẇẇȧȧ - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| − | This is another one of Randall's [[:Category:Tips|Tips]], this time a Linguistics Tip. The curly-haired linguist, [[Gretchen McCulloch]], manages to produce a cursed sound using complex vowels, which cannot be comprehended by normal humans like [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], who both seem to get a headache from listening to the sound. The sound she makes was produced by extending the IPA vowel plane along an imaginary axis to form the complex vowels.
| + | In mathematics, complex numbers are numbers including both real numbers and imaginary numbers. A complex number can be expressed as "''a'' + ''b''i" where ''a'' is a real number and i, the imaginary part, is the square root of negative one. When expanding the one-dimensional number line with an imaginary axis, it becomes two-dimensional. |
| | | | |
| − | In phonetics based on the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}} (IPA), the space of {{w|vocal tract}} articulators determining {{w|vowel}}s <!-- (as opposed to unvoiced consonants) -- nasals and liquids don't care where the tongue is, in any language {acn} --> is represented as three dimensional, from the position of the tongue and lips. The vertical axis represents vowel height or ''closedness'' (i.e., how close or far the tongue is from the top of the mouth), and the horizontal axis represents front-to-back ''place'' (i.e., how close or far the top of the tongue is from the teeth.) The position of the tongue, along with the frequency of the {{w|vocal cords}} vibrating in the larynx from air being exhaled by the diaphragm, are the primary determinants of the fundamental and second {{w|formant}} frequencies of vowel sounds. A third dimension of vowel sounds is the "roundedness" of the lips, represented on the IPA vowel chart to the right by pairs of vowel phoneme {{w|glyph}}s. Other higher-dimensional vowel representations include {{w|diphthong}}s, which are simply two different sequential vowels slurred together; diphones, which represent the last half of one phoneme followed by the first half of the next; {{w|vowel shift}} mappings delineating different accents[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47086396.pdf][https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0095447010000562] and long-term evolution of voiced phone sounds; and {{w|cepstrum|cepstral}} representations such as {{w|Mel-frequency cepstrum|mel-frequency cepstral coefficients}}.
| + | [[File:Ipa-chart-vowels.png|thumb|200px|The IPA vowel chart]] |
| | + | In phonetics, the vowelspace is represented as two-dimensional. This is non-abstract: the y axis represents vowel height (i.e. how close or far the tongue is from the top of the mouth) and the x axis represents frontness/backness (i.e. how close or far the tongue is from the teeth). In an analogy to the addition of a new dimension in mathematics, two-dimensional vowelspace becomes '''three'''-dimensional with a new axis. |
| | | | |
| − | [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] suggests increasing the range of vowel sounds available by using complex notation to indicate an additional dimension with an "imaginary" axis. In mathematics, {{w|complex number}}s are numbers including both real numbers and {{w|imaginary number}}s. A complex number can be expressed as, "''a'' + ''b''i," where ''a'' and ''b'' are real numbers, but the latter imaginary part is combined with 'i,' the square root of negative one, as depicted in the central expression in the comic by √<span style="border-top: 1px solid currentColor">-1</span> indicating a further dimension of coordinates. When expanding the one-dimensional number line with an imaginary axis, it becomes two-dimensional with the "''b''i" component {{w|orthogonal}} to the original "real" number line. Linguists never use the {{w|complex plane}} to represent vowel roundedness or any other higher-dimensional features of phonemes, although the properties of complex numbers could conceivably support representing physiological features of the vocal tract, such as prior position of the articulators.{{cn}}
| + | In linguistics ə is the schwa symbol, the most common vowel sound in English polysyllabic words (the a in comma or the e in letter). The schwa symbol looks like a reversed e symbol (the base of natural logarithms). |
| | | | |
| − | This comic conflates complex numbers in mathematics with "complex vowels" in linguistics. Such complex vowels are implied to create sounds which cannot be properly processed by the human brain and represents one with a heavily modified "schwa" {{w|Ə}} phoneme, mirrored vertically and surrounded by multiple {{w|diacritics}} akin to the {{w|Zalgo text}} meme. The sound of this supposedly alien vowel has Cueball and Megan clutching their heads. Overall, Randall's complex vowels bear similarity to the cliché of "black speech" in {{w|Lovecraftian horror}}, a language created by alien beings with different vocal patterns than humans. | + | This comic conflates complex numbers in mathematics with "complex vowels" in linguistics. This creates a series of sounds which cannot be properly processed by the human brain. This is similar to the cliche of "black speech" in Lovecraftian horror, a language created by alien beings with different vocal patterns than humans. |
| | | | |
| − | In linguistics, 'ə' is the {{w|schwa}} symbol, referred to in the title text and the depiction of complex phonemes, the most common vowel sound in English polysyllabic words (the 'a' in "comma" or the second 'e' in "letter.") Production of the schwa sound takes place with the tongue, jaw, and lips all in a relaxed, central position, and is often entirely optional in many if not most dialects of English. The pronunciation of "[ṡṡċċḣḣẇẇȧȧ]" in the title text is said to sound like the x in the word fire. In fact, there is no x in fire.{{Citation needed}} This is perhaps in line with the idea that complex sounds are incomprehensible to most humans, and likely also impossible to pronounce by anyone other than experts such as [[:Category:Comics featuring Gretchen McCulloch|Gretchen]]. Another example of weird diacritics is in [[2619: Crêpe]], and with Zalgo text in [[1647: Diacritics]]. The use of typography to create psychological stress is explored in [[859: (]].
| + | The linguist in the comic appears to be {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}}, as previously depicted in [[2421: Tower of Babel]] and [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]]. |
| | | | |
| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| − | :[A diagram shows the extrusion of the trapezoidal IPA vowel chart upwards into three dimensions. A point near the center is labeled with an equation that shows "ə + ½√-1 " as being equivalent to a made-up symbol that looks like two schwas mirroring each other with other markings above and below.]
| + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| | | | |
| − | :[Below the diagram, a character with shoulder-length dark wavy hair pronounces the new vowel in a speech bubble with unstable lines surrounding it. Two bystanders to her right are bent over slightly, clutching their heads in apparent anguish.]
| + | ==Comic Discussion== |
| − | | + | Because vowelspace is often represented in books, on screens, etc., it '''is''' often represented as two-dimensional, but this is actually insufficient. Vowels can also be rounded (i.e. the lips are round to pronounce them), although in English and other languages, roundedness correlates mostly (but not fully) with backness. (This means the back vowels [u, o] are also the round ones, but [a], as in "Say 'ah'," is back but unrounded.) French and German, though, have front and back round vowels (as well as unrounded front ones) and languages like Turkish have the full paradigm: eight vowels—one for each combination of high/low, back/front, round/unrounded—that can easily be represented on the vertices of a cube. Some vowel harmony processes in Turkic languages even only operate along one dimension. Roundedness will thus spread from one vowel to another, so the existence of a front round high vowel will trigger the round version of another nearby vowel. |
| − | :[Caption below the panel:]
| |
| − | :Linguistics tip: Extend the IPA vowel plane along the imaginary axis to produce the ''complex vowels'', cursed sounds which the human mind cannot comprehend.
| |
| − | | |
| − | {{comic discussion}}
| |
| − | | |
| − | [[Category:Tips]]
| |
| − | [[Category:Language]]
| |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Gretchen McCulloch]]
| |
