I just had an idea and I wonder what fellow Escapists think.
Would it be possible to have an entire language that was just a single word, where different meanings would be implied simply by tone of voice? Obviously the people speaking it would have to have super-trained hearing to pick out the slight variations in tone.
Or if that's impossible, then how about the word being pronounced in different ways? I guess that would technically make them multiple words, but they'd still all be represented by the same symbols or letters.
Or if THAT'S too much, then a language with only a handful of words, like less than 20?
Thoughts?
Would it be possible to have an entire language that was just a single word, where different meanings would be implied simply by tone of voice? Obviously the people speaking it would have to have super-trained hearing to pick out the slight variations in tone.
Or if that's impossible, then how about the word being pronounced in different ways? I guess that would technically make them multiple words, but they'd still all be represented by the same symbols or letters.
Or if THAT'S too much, then a language with only a handful of words, like less than 20?
Thoughts?