Talking to animals in a moribund language

What is it about?

The study is dedicated to conative animal calls (CACs) in a Kalahari Khoe language, Tjwao. By using a prototype approach to categorization, the authors test the Tjwao CACs for their compliance with the prototype of CACs posited recently in scholarly literature. The authors conclude that Tjwao CACs largely conform to the pragma-semantic, phonetic, and morphological properties associated with CACs across languages. In light of the Tjwao data, a few refinements are also proposed. These concern the potential prevalence of whistles as the most common sounds not included in the International Phonetic Alphabet, the correlation of summonses with replication and repetitions as well as front and/or close vowels, the higher frequency of summonses and dispersals among all semantic types of CACs, and the lesser extent of monosemy than previously claimed.

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Why is it important?

The study examined the compliance of conative animal calls (CACs) in Tjwao with the prototypes of CACs posited recently in scholarly literature: the general prototype of a CAC and a more specific prototype of a dispersal. Having reviewed 39 CACs, we conclude that Tjwao CACs largely conform to the pragmasemantic, phonetic, and morphological properties associated with CACs across languages, which corroborates their typological validity (cf. Andrason & Karani 2021; Andrason forthcoming; Andrason under review). However, the Tjwao data suggest that a few refinements may also be proposed. These concern the potential prevalence of whistles as the most common non-IPA sounds; the stronger-than assumed correlation of summonses with replication/repetitions and front and/ or close vowels; the higher frequency of summonses and dispersals among all semantic types of CACs; and the lower extent of monosemy than claimed in the literature.

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