chalidze
The Linguistic Brain Code and Paleolinguistics, 1984-86 [Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
by Valery Chalidze
[A summary of my thoughts on the linguistic code appears here because I see a connection between the Fourier spectrum of proteins and my code. The
spectrum depends on the way of folding, and with multiple ways of possible (including so-called wrong) folding, proteins are ready to resonate on the code of multiple language frases. Those that do somehow connect with neurons and through unknown mechanism are
able to transform its mechano-molecular oscillations into electrical oscillations, which could be processed by the neural network. Such proteins
remain as corpuscles of memory. Those that don't resonate with the code of
language frases for some time, disappear to make room for new proteins,
which need to be produced constantly. This is the core of my protein model
of long-term memory, corresponding to my linguistic code.
Genetically programmed and properly folded proteins are corpuscles of
innate memory (not linguistic in general), and they are connected with
neutrons in the same unknown fashion.
The information length of that memory represented by the Fourier spectrum
can be longer than the information coded in genes. That would be a
fascinating kind of information compression, except it is possible only in the form of decompression.
Feb. 16, 2011]
In 1985-86 author published two short books devoted to his concept of the linguistics brain code. In Brain Code And Paleolinguistics he showed how the code in question affects the distribution of consonants in language, and presented a hypothesis of the stadial development of language with an increase in the number of consonsonants: from eight (as in Hawaian) to twelve (as in Finnish) to twenty-one (as in the majority of contemporary languages). This corresponds to the number of digits of the brain code (from three to five). Because the prevailing approach to the brain is that it is an analogous device, Chalidze's work in this field is not widely accepted and is rather iconoclastic.
Summary of the publications:
On the linguistic brain code (1985) and
Brain Code and Paleolinguistics (1986)
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
Deductions about the nature of the brains code
In imagining how the brain might process information one is limited by knowledge of the existing types of information processing which have come to us through computer science. The two main types are analogous and digital. We have to assume that information is presented into the brain processor by impulses The exact nature of those impulses, whether they be impulses of voltage or frequency, is irrelevant in a discussion of modes of codification.
Analogous processing based on manipulating with level of signal for which purposse this level must be known and independant of factors not containing information. If linguistic processing in the brain were based on the intensity of signals, the brain would necessarily have the ability to precisely measure levels of signal's intensity. Moreover, various influences, such as drugs, or even simple excitement, can greatly affect the intensity of brain signals. These changes however, except in rare cases, do not affect linguistic processing. I therefore conclude that analogous processing in the brain is not probable.
Digital processing has the capability of using, two, three or more digits for encoding information.
The possibility of three-or-more digit encoding in the brain theoretically exists, but, since it would require the measurement of impulses, it would be subject to the same reservations I expressed with regard to analogous processing.
The binary code, typically used for manmade informational devices, uses binary numbers such as 11 which equals decimal 3, or 101 which equals decimal 5 and physically expresses them in a combination of impulses for ones and absence of impulses for zeros. A problem arises when distinguishing between "0" and "00". It is easy in a computer, with its quartz clock and set frequency of series of signals. The brain, however, lacks the capacity to precisely measure and to maintain standards of frequency. Even if these capabilities existed normally, the frequency of brain activity is ever-changing, depending on the type of activity or the influence of drugs, yet the speech function is affected by these changes in only the rarest cases.
I therefore conclude that there must exist a special kind of binary code in the brain which does not depend on the precise measurement of time. Such a code would be easy to construct. If the brain does not distinguish between "0" and "00", then:
each sound of speech must be encoded by binary numbers -- codons -- which do not contain pairs of zeros for example 10101, 11101, 010111.
I do not address here the ways the brain distinguishes among different codons, only the codons themselves.
Consonants
A number of facts lead me to conclude that the encoding of vowels and the encoding of consonants are performed separately in brain:
1. A feature common to historys first known alphabets -- Phoenician and Semitic -- is the absence of vowels. The same feature is characteristic of the syllabic writing of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Though the usual explanation is that vowels were left out for brevity, we cannot help but wonder if there were vowels at that time, i. e. elements of language which carried substantial information.
2. Even in contemporary languages, which, doubtless, possess far richer lexicons than those of ancient times, vowels do not carry a heavy informational burden. Vowels represent almost fifty percent of all sounds in a vast number of languages, but the number of different vowels is generally much smaller than the number of consonants. The probability of occurrence of vowels in a text is much higher, while their quantity of information is lower. In fact, as in ancient times, there is a good probability of recognizing words which lack their vowels, while it is practically impossible to recognize a word without its consonants.
3. According to Roman Jacobson who studied brain perception of vowels, "between vowels and consonants there is precisely the same relation as between so-called vibrant, or variegated colors on the one hand, and the colorless gray series on the other. (R. Jacobson. Kindersprache, Aphasie and allgemeine Lautgesetze, Upsala, 1942, p.60)
4. This corresponds with a study of perception of sounds by children (G.N. Ivanova - Luk'yanova. Perception of sounds." in Development of the Phonetics of Modern Russian, Moscow, 1966)
5. It was observed that in breaking down words into syllables it is precisely the vowel sounds that children omit (El'konin, D.B. "Some Question of the psychology of Learning to Read and Write," in Voprosy psikhologii, 1956, No. 5, p. 51)
6. Another author notes: "syllables are determined [by children] by consonants, while vowels are perceived as syllabic quality of consonants."(Orfinskaia V.K. "On the Question of Studying Russian vowels," in the Pamyati akademika Shcherby, Leningrad, 1951, p.212 )
7. In some cases after brain trauma people omit vowels in writing. (Lyr'e, A.R., Reconstruction of Brain Function After Battle Trauma, Moscow, 1948, p.179.)
These are but a few of the facts known about the different nature of vowels and consonants and permit me to state that vowels play a secondary role in language and to use as my working hypothesis that:
consonants and vowels are encoded separately in the brain.
The quantity of codons
The number of codons is easily determined by the number of digits.
Digits (n) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Number of codons X(n) 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34
The Numbers of codons are actually Fibonacci numbers: starting with third every number equals the sum of the preceding two. To give an example the codons of the four digit code would be:
1111, 0111, 1011, 1101, 1110, 0101, 0110, 1010.
It should be noted that the codon containing all ones (the one-codon) might be somewhat special and may not be in use in all languages. Furthermore, a pause -- a codon lacking any impulses, represented as 0000 (the zero-codon) may be part of a coding system. Therefore, the quantity of sounds which can be encoded by an n-digit code is actually:
X(n), X(n) + 1 or X(n) -1
Alef in the ancient Hebrew alphabet might very well be an example of this special zero-codon. According to I. Fridrichs the phonetic effect of alef is similar to the unwritten North German separator between prefix and root in the words geachter and Abart (I. Fridrichs, History of writing (in Russian), Moscow, 1979, p. 96) The obvious analogy with Russian is hard sign. If this interpretation is correct, zero-codon plays role of command to stop flow of speech. This also would be role of hard sign in old Russian orthography in the end of each word which ended with hard consonant.
Phonemes, letters and codons
Phoneticists analyze speech on the basis of phonemes, the elements of spoken language. Written language is encoded in letters. Which of these two representations more closely approximates the manner in which language is encoded in the brain?
In an attempt to answer, I would like to make the following points:
The most noticeable difference between a letter vs. a phoneme representation emerges when we are studying vowels which are not under discussion here.
In the realm of consonants, phonemes are often affected by interaction with neighboring sounds. In Russian for example, almost every consonant can be presented by either a soft or hard phoneme, depending upon the following vowel. It is reasonable to expect that the brain contains codons for consonants only, not for soft and hard consonants separately: soft consonants are encoded by a codon designating consonant plus special codon for softness (perhaps a one-codon).
Many languages have a nearly one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and consonants.
Some languages, such as English, use a combination of letters to express certain consonant sounds, such as "sh", "ch" and so on. In such cases it is easy in analyzing frequencies to program the computer to consider those combinations as separate consonants corresponding to separate codons
In light of the preceding information, I feel quite justified in using written texts for my language analysis, considering them to be a close representation of what is actually encoded by the brain.
Reasonable approximation is in the nature of any scientific study. Where an approximate approach leads, precision will follow.
The quantity of sounds
The number of codons X(n) = 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 21, 34 taken with + or -1 immediately corresponds with the quantity of consonants in known languages. There are 7 to 9 consonants (n=4) in Polynesian languages and in the language of Native Americans who lived in what is now the state of Oregon (Hale, H. United State exploring Expedition, 1838-42. Ethnography and Philology, reprinted in 1968. )
It is also worth mentioning that the Chinese consider the eight symbols ba gua to be their ancient alphabet, although contemporary Western scholars view them as purely magical symbols.
There are12 consonants (n=5) in Finnish
The majority of contemporary languages, as is the case with the ancient Semitic alphabet, can be characterized as n=6 with 20 - 22 consonants.
Analogy with the musical scale and animals vocalization
Interestingly, throughout history the number of sounds in the musical scale has always corresponded with the number of codons in my brain code. From ancient times through the sixteenth century the Chinese used a 5-tone scale. The old European octave had 8 tones and the more recent half-tone octave has 12 tones. An octave with quarter-tones known in India since ancient time has 22 tones.
It is natural to assume that the code under discussion reflects a brain property developed independent of language skills, a property that might manifest itself in processing non-linguistic information.
We also find numbers similar to X(n) in the study of animal vocalization. For example, seals of two populations of the species Leptonichotes weddelli emit 21 and 34 different sounds respectively. (Thomas, J.,Zinnel, K., Ferm, L. Analysis of Weddel seal (Leptonichotes weddelli) Vocalizations Using Underwater Playbacks. Can. J. of Zoology, 1983, 1448; Thomas J., Stirling I. Geographic Variat in the Underwater Vocalization of Weddel Seals..., Can J. of Zoology, 1983, 2203)3
It is not clear however if all sounds of animal vocalization can be treated as consonants. If vowels are similarly encoded we might expect that the number of sounds in animal vocalization would equal the sum of X(n) with a different n; for example if consonants are coded with n=5 and vowels with n=3, the whole number of sounds would be 18.
Ancient segment of language
The principle of economy so characteristic in the development and behavior of living creatures should guide us towards a hypothesis concerning the origins of language. Obviously, languages were not born with all of the richness of their present lexicon. Initially there were doubtless fewer words and that smaller quantity of words did not need the multiplicity of consonants so commonplace nowadays in the majority of languages. That being the case, a code with a lower n could very well have been the code of speech of ancient times, covering the initial consonants which were in use at the time.
Language being an essentially inert system, we may hope to notice traces of this ancient segment of language by analyzing the frequencies of consonants.
Here, for example, in descending order, the frequencies of Russian consonants in a text by percentage to all letters:
6.2, 5.6, 4.8, 4.5, 4.2, 4.1, 4.1, 4.1, 3.0, 2.5, 2.5, 2.0, 1.7, 1.3, 1.3, .9, .9, .6, .1, .003
The corresponding consonants, by descending order are:
T, N, S, R, D, L, V, K, M, B, P, G, Z, CH, SH, ZH, H, TS, SHCH, F
We notice that frequencies are different as some consonants are used more often than others, yet if all existing consonants were in use since the very beginnings of language, we would expect a smooth curve on a graph showing spectrum of frequency. (See graph) If there is a jump or other peculiarity on this graph, there must be a reason for it; the same if there is bend in the curve which indicate a jump in the first derivative of the spectrum.
If there were initial consonants when language began, this situation might very well be reflected in the present body of language e.g. initial consonants would be more frequently occurring as a group because the inert lexicon of language would still carry all or many words built only from initial consonants. Then we might see a peculiarity on a graph showing spectrum of frequency.
There is a well defined jump after eighth consonant on the graph of spectrum of frequency for Russian which indicates the possibility of existing memory of a 4-digit code of language with eight consonants.
Of course, one cannot draw conclusions from the study of only one language. The following languages were analyzed with the following results. I also show the quantity of characters in the sample, a quantity that should be sufficiently large to satisfy any statistical conclusion as to meaningful peculiarity. In cases where I did not count frequencies myself, I show the source of my data. Graphs are shown in my publication. 1. Russian. Jump after eight consonants. See graph above.
2. English. Bend on the eighth consonant. 360,000 char. Neutral text of one author.
3. German. Bend on the seventh consonant. Data on the frequency of phonemes from Kycera, Henry, and Monroe, George K. A Comparative Quantitative phonology of Russian, Czech, and German, New York, 1968, p. 32.
4. Vogul. Jump after eighth consonant. (Altogether there are12 consonants in Vogul) Data from Tambovcev, Yurij A., Kombinierbarkeit von Vokalen und Konsonanten im Vogulischen, Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen, 1982, 6, pp. 145-161.
5. Finnish. Jump on fifth consonant. (Altogether there are 12 consonants in Finnish). Data from Kaisa Hakkinen. Statistische Angaben zur Lautstruktur der finnischen Schprache. Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen, 1982, 6, pp. 77-92.
6. Hawaiian. Bend on fifth consonant. (Altogether there are 8 consonants). 12,000 char. Text: Ke Kumu Mua Ano Hou I Hoonanila ... J. Pula I Kakau., 1862
7. Latin. Jumps after fifth and ninth consonants. 190,000 char. Text: Tacitus' History.
8. Homer's Greek. Bend on fifth and jump on ninth consonant. Text: The Iliad and The Odyssey.
9. Hebrew. Too many jumps for conclusion. 260,000 char. Text: Shemuel, Melachm, Yeshaya.
10. Sanskrit. No peculiarities. 750,000 char. Text: Bhagavad-Gita.
This analysis shows a high likelihood of the existence of a memory of an ancient segment of language having 5 or 8 (9) consonants, corresponding to 3- and 4-digit codes.
Additional evidence and hypothesis.
There is further indirect evidence of the existence of an ancient segment of language found in analysis of data on aphasia and the acquisition of language by children. Might it be that the ancient segment of language is still with us, serving mostly function words and being processed by a separate area of the brain?
The following questions are also discussed:
Is there an analogy between linguistic encoding and encoding in visual memory?
Is it possible that vowels are encoded separately, but not independently from the encoding of consonants?
Why is it that the most frequently occurring consonants (N and T in Russian) occur more frequently at the end of phrases? (Based on the analysis of Russian proverbs).
Does the brain engage in combinatorial manipulation with ones and zeros while processing linguistic information?
© Copyright by Valery Chalidze, 1985,1986
==========================
Publications by Valery Chalidze:
=========================
On the linguistic brain code (1985) available in copy for $12 with shipping
Still available:
Brain Code and Paleolinguistics (1986) available for $12 with shipping.
Address: Chalidze Publications, 560 Herrick Rd. Benson Vt, 05743
--------------------------------
Works of Valery Chalidze
Discussion on Freedom of Will ---
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Valery_Chalidze
=====================
Mass And Electric Charge In The Vortex Theory Of Matter - Research On Possibilities Of Classical Theory Of Sub-atomic Particles, 1956-2001
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
========================
Infinity or Not?
An Arithmetical Satire
--------Order directly from Universal Publishers and View First 25 Pages ----- http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581124627
=====================
Entropy Demystified: Potential Order, Life and Money
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
====================
Hierarchical Instinct and Human Evolution, Socio-biological approach,1989
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
Brain Code And Paleolinguistics , 88 p. 1986
On the Linguistic Brain Code , 104 p. 1985
Criminal Russia, Random House, 1977
To defend these rights , Random House, 1974
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
by Valery Chalidze
[A summary of my thoughts on the linguistic code appears here because I see a connection between the Fourier spectrum of proteins and my code. The
spectrum depends on the way of folding, and with multiple ways of possible (including so-called wrong) folding, proteins are ready to resonate on the code of multiple language frases. Those that do somehow connect with neurons and through unknown mechanism are
able to transform its mechano-molecular oscillations into electrical oscillations, which could be processed by the neural network. Such proteins
remain as corpuscles of memory. Those that don't resonate with the code of
language frases for some time, disappear to make room for new proteins,
which need to be produced constantly. This is the core of my protein model
of long-term memory, corresponding to my linguistic code.
Genetically programmed and properly folded proteins are corpuscles of
innate memory (not linguistic in general), and they are connected with
neutrons in the same unknown fashion.
The information length of that memory represented by the Fourier spectrum
can be longer than the information coded in genes. That would be a
fascinating kind of information compression, except it is possible only in the form of decompression.
Feb. 16, 2011]
In 1985-86 author published two short books devoted to his concept of the linguistics brain code. In Brain Code And Paleolinguistics he showed how the code in question affects the distribution of consonants in language, and presented a hypothesis of the stadial development of language with an increase in the number of consonsonants: from eight (as in Hawaian) to twelve (as in Finnish) to twenty-one (as in the majority of contemporary languages). This corresponds to the number of digits of the brain code (from three to five). Because the prevailing approach to the brain is that it is an analogous device, Chalidze's work in this field is not widely accepted and is rather iconoclastic.
Summary of the publications:
On the linguistic brain code (1985) and
Brain Code and Paleolinguistics (1986)
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
Deductions about the nature of the brains code
In imagining how the brain might process information one is limited by knowledge of the existing types of information processing which have come to us through computer science. The two main types are analogous and digital. We have to assume that information is presented into the brain processor by impulses The exact nature of those impulses, whether they be impulses of voltage or frequency, is irrelevant in a discussion of modes of codification.
Analogous processing based on manipulating with level of signal for which purposse this level must be known and independant of factors not containing information. If linguistic processing in the brain were based on the intensity of signals, the brain would necessarily have the ability to precisely measure levels of signal's intensity. Moreover, various influences, such as drugs, or even simple excitement, can greatly affect the intensity of brain signals. These changes however, except in rare cases, do not affect linguistic processing. I therefore conclude that analogous processing in the brain is not probable.
Digital processing has the capability of using, two, three or more digits for encoding information.
The possibility of three-or-more digit encoding in the brain theoretically exists, but, since it would require the measurement of impulses, it would be subject to the same reservations I expressed with regard to analogous processing.
The binary code, typically used for manmade informational devices, uses binary numbers such as 11 which equals decimal 3, or 101 which equals decimal 5 and physically expresses them in a combination of impulses for ones and absence of impulses for zeros. A problem arises when distinguishing between "0" and "00". It is easy in a computer, with its quartz clock and set frequency of series of signals. The brain, however, lacks the capacity to precisely measure and to maintain standards of frequency. Even if these capabilities existed normally, the frequency of brain activity is ever-changing, depending on the type of activity or the influence of drugs, yet the speech function is affected by these changes in only the rarest cases.
I therefore conclude that there must exist a special kind of binary code in the brain which does not depend on the precise measurement of time. Such a code would be easy to construct. If the brain does not distinguish between "0" and "00", then:
each sound of speech must be encoded by binary numbers -- codons -- which do not contain pairs of zeros for example 10101, 11101, 010111.
I do not address here the ways the brain distinguishes among different codons, only the codons themselves.
Consonants
A number of facts lead me to conclude that the encoding of vowels and the encoding of consonants are performed separately in brain:
1. A feature common to historys first known alphabets -- Phoenician and Semitic -- is the absence of vowels. The same feature is characteristic of the syllabic writing of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Though the usual explanation is that vowels were left out for brevity, we cannot help but wonder if there were vowels at that time, i. e. elements of language which carried substantial information.
2. Even in contemporary languages, which, doubtless, possess far richer lexicons than those of ancient times, vowels do not carry a heavy informational burden. Vowels represent almost fifty percent of all sounds in a vast number of languages, but the number of different vowels is generally much smaller than the number of consonants. The probability of occurrence of vowels in a text is much higher, while their quantity of information is lower. In fact, as in ancient times, there is a good probability of recognizing words which lack their vowels, while it is practically impossible to recognize a word without its consonants.
3. According to Roman Jacobson who studied brain perception of vowels, "between vowels and consonants there is precisely the same relation as between so-called vibrant, or variegated colors on the one hand, and the colorless gray series on the other. (R. Jacobson. Kindersprache, Aphasie and allgemeine Lautgesetze, Upsala, 1942, p.60)
4. This corresponds with a study of perception of sounds by children (G.N. Ivanova - Luk'yanova. Perception of sounds." in Development of the Phonetics of Modern Russian, Moscow, 1966)
5. It was observed that in breaking down words into syllables it is precisely the vowel sounds that children omit (El'konin, D.B. "Some Question of the psychology of Learning to Read and Write," in Voprosy psikhologii, 1956, No. 5, p. 51)
6. Another author notes: "syllables are determined [by children] by consonants, while vowels are perceived as syllabic quality of consonants."(Orfinskaia V.K. "On the Question of Studying Russian vowels," in the Pamyati akademika Shcherby, Leningrad, 1951, p.212 )
7. In some cases after brain trauma people omit vowels in writing. (Lyr'e, A.R., Reconstruction of Brain Function After Battle Trauma, Moscow, 1948, p.179.)
These are but a few of the facts known about the different nature of vowels and consonants and permit me to state that vowels play a secondary role in language and to use as my working hypothesis that:
consonants and vowels are encoded separately in the brain.
The quantity of codons
The number of codons is easily determined by the number of digits.
Digits (n) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Number of codons X(n) 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34
The Numbers of codons are actually Fibonacci numbers: starting with third every number equals the sum of the preceding two. To give an example the codons of the four digit code would be:
1111, 0111, 1011, 1101, 1110, 0101, 0110, 1010.
It should be noted that the codon containing all ones (the one-codon) might be somewhat special and may not be in use in all languages. Furthermore, a pause -- a codon lacking any impulses, represented as 0000 (the zero-codon) may be part of a coding system. Therefore, the quantity of sounds which can be encoded by an n-digit code is actually:
X(n), X(n) + 1 or X(n) -1
Alef in the ancient Hebrew alphabet might very well be an example of this special zero-codon. According to I. Fridrichs the phonetic effect of alef is similar to the unwritten North German separator between prefix and root in the words geachter and Abart (I. Fridrichs, History of writing (in Russian), Moscow, 1979, p. 96) The obvious analogy with Russian is hard sign. If this interpretation is correct, zero-codon plays role of command to stop flow of speech. This also would be role of hard sign in old Russian orthography in the end of each word which ended with hard consonant.
Phonemes, letters and codons
Phoneticists analyze speech on the basis of phonemes, the elements of spoken language. Written language is encoded in letters. Which of these two representations more closely approximates the manner in which language is encoded in the brain?
In an attempt to answer, I would like to make the following points:
The most noticeable difference between a letter vs. a phoneme representation emerges when we are studying vowels which are not under discussion here.
In the realm of consonants, phonemes are often affected by interaction with neighboring sounds. In Russian for example, almost every consonant can be presented by either a soft or hard phoneme, depending upon the following vowel. It is reasonable to expect that the brain contains codons for consonants only, not for soft and hard consonants separately: soft consonants are encoded by a codon designating consonant plus special codon for softness (perhaps a one-codon).
Many languages have a nearly one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and consonants.
Some languages, such as English, use a combination of letters to express certain consonant sounds, such as "sh", "ch" and so on. In such cases it is easy in analyzing frequencies to program the computer to consider those combinations as separate consonants corresponding to separate codons
In light of the preceding information, I feel quite justified in using written texts for my language analysis, considering them to be a close representation of what is actually encoded by the brain.
Reasonable approximation is in the nature of any scientific study. Where an approximate approach leads, precision will follow.
The quantity of sounds
The number of codons X(n) = 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 21, 34 taken with + or -1 immediately corresponds with the quantity of consonants in known languages. There are 7 to 9 consonants (n=4) in Polynesian languages and in the language of Native Americans who lived in what is now the state of Oregon (Hale, H. United State exploring Expedition, 1838-42. Ethnography and Philology, reprinted in 1968. )
It is also worth mentioning that the Chinese consider the eight symbols ba gua to be their ancient alphabet, although contemporary Western scholars view them as purely magical symbols.
There are12 consonants (n=5) in Finnish
The majority of contemporary languages, as is the case with the ancient Semitic alphabet, can be characterized as n=6 with 20 - 22 consonants.
Analogy with the musical scale and animals vocalization
Interestingly, throughout history the number of sounds in the musical scale has always corresponded with the number of codons in my brain code. From ancient times through the sixteenth century the Chinese used a 5-tone scale. The old European octave had 8 tones and the more recent half-tone octave has 12 tones. An octave with quarter-tones known in India since ancient time has 22 tones.
It is natural to assume that the code under discussion reflects a brain property developed independent of language skills, a property that might manifest itself in processing non-linguistic information.
We also find numbers similar to X(n) in the study of animal vocalization. For example, seals of two populations of the species Leptonichotes weddelli emit 21 and 34 different sounds respectively. (Thomas, J.,Zinnel, K., Ferm, L. Analysis of Weddel seal (Leptonichotes weddelli) Vocalizations Using Underwater Playbacks. Can. J. of Zoology, 1983, 1448; Thomas J., Stirling I. Geographic Variat in the Underwater Vocalization of Weddel Seals..., Can J. of Zoology, 1983, 2203)3
It is not clear however if all sounds of animal vocalization can be treated as consonants. If vowels are similarly encoded we might expect that the number of sounds in animal vocalization would equal the sum of X(n) with a different n; for example if consonants are coded with n=5 and vowels with n=3, the whole number of sounds would be 18.
Ancient segment of language
The principle of economy so characteristic in the development and behavior of living creatures should guide us towards a hypothesis concerning the origins of language. Obviously, languages were not born with all of the richness of their present lexicon. Initially there were doubtless fewer words and that smaller quantity of words did not need the multiplicity of consonants so commonplace nowadays in the majority of languages. That being the case, a code with a lower n could very well have been the code of speech of ancient times, covering the initial consonants which were in use at the time.
Language being an essentially inert system, we may hope to notice traces of this ancient segment of language by analyzing the frequencies of consonants.
Here, for example, in descending order, the frequencies of Russian consonants in a text by percentage to all letters:
6.2, 5.6, 4.8, 4.5, 4.2, 4.1, 4.1, 4.1, 3.0, 2.5, 2.5, 2.0, 1.7, 1.3, 1.3, .9, .9, .6, .1, .003
The corresponding consonants, by descending order are:
T, N, S, R, D, L, V, K, M, B, P, G, Z, CH, SH, ZH, H, TS, SHCH, F
We notice that frequencies are different as some consonants are used more often than others, yet if all existing consonants were in use since the very beginnings of language, we would expect a smooth curve on a graph showing spectrum of frequency. (See graph) If there is a jump or other peculiarity on this graph, there must be a reason for it; the same if there is bend in the curve which indicate a jump in the first derivative of the spectrum.
If there were initial consonants when language began, this situation might very well be reflected in the present body of language e.g. initial consonants would be more frequently occurring as a group because the inert lexicon of language would still carry all or many words built only from initial consonants. Then we might see a peculiarity on a graph showing spectrum of frequency.
There is a well defined jump after eighth consonant on the graph of spectrum of frequency for Russian which indicates the possibility of existing memory of a 4-digit code of language with eight consonants.
Of course, one cannot draw conclusions from the study of only one language. The following languages were analyzed with the following results. I also show the quantity of characters in the sample, a quantity that should be sufficiently large to satisfy any statistical conclusion as to meaningful peculiarity. In cases where I did not count frequencies myself, I show the source of my data. Graphs are shown in my publication. 1. Russian. Jump after eight consonants. See graph above.
2. English. Bend on the eighth consonant. 360,000 char. Neutral text of one author.
3. German. Bend on the seventh consonant. Data on the frequency of phonemes from Kycera, Henry, and Monroe, George K. A Comparative Quantitative phonology of Russian, Czech, and German, New York, 1968, p. 32.
4. Vogul. Jump after eighth consonant. (Altogether there are12 consonants in Vogul) Data from Tambovcev, Yurij A., Kombinierbarkeit von Vokalen und Konsonanten im Vogulischen, Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen, 1982, 6, pp. 145-161.
5. Finnish. Jump on fifth consonant. (Altogether there are 12 consonants in Finnish). Data from Kaisa Hakkinen. Statistische Angaben zur Lautstruktur der finnischen Schprache. Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen, 1982, 6, pp. 77-92.
6. Hawaiian. Bend on fifth consonant. (Altogether there are 8 consonants). 12,000 char. Text: Ke Kumu Mua Ano Hou I Hoonanila ... J. Pula I Kakau., 1862
7. Latin. Jumps after fifth and ninth consonants. 190,000 char. Text: Tacitus' History.
8. Homer's Greek. Bend on fifth and jump on ninth consonant. Text: The Iliad and The Odyssey.
9. Hebrew. Too many jumps for conclusion. 260,000 char. Text: Shemuel, Melachm, Yeshaya.
10. Sanskrit. No peculiarities. 750,000 char. Text: Bhagavad-Gita.
This analysis shows a high likelihood of the existence of a memory of an ancient segment of language having 5 or 8 (9) consonants, corresponding to 3- and 4-digit codes.
Additional evidence and hypothesis.
There is further indirect evidence of the existence of an ancient segment of language found in analysis of data on aphasia and the acquisition of language by children. Might it be that the ancient segment of language is still with us, serving mostly function words and being processed by a separate area of the brain?
The following questions are also discussed:
Is there an analogy between linguistic encoding and encoding in visual memory?
Is it possible that vowels are encoded separately, but not independently from the encoding of consonants?
Why is it that the most frequently occurring consonants (N and T in Russian) occur more frequently at the end of phrases? (Based on the analysis of Russian proverbs).
Does the brain engage in combinatorial manipulation with ones and zeros while processing linguistic information?
© Copyright by Valery Chalidze, 1985,1986
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Publications by Valery Chalidze:
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On the linguistic brain code (1985) available in copy for $12 with shipping
Still available:
Brain Code and Paleolinguistics (1986) available for $12 with shipping.
Address: Chalidze Publications, 560 Herrick Rd. Benson Vt, 05743
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Works of Valery Chalidze
Discussion on Freedom of Will ---
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Valery_Chalidze
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Mass And Electric Charge In The Vortex Theory Of Matter - Research On Possibilities Of Classical Theory Of Sub-atomic Particles, 1956-2001
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
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Infinity or Not?
An Arithmetical Satire
--------Order directly from Universal Publishers and View First 25 Pages ----- http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581124627
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Entropy Demystified: Potential Order, Life and Money
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
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Hierarchical Instinct and Human Evolution, Socio-biological approach,1989
[Now in public domain.
My e-mail VRAZHEK43 at Google com.]
Brain Code And Paleolinguistics , 88 p. 1986
On the Linguistic Brain Code , 104 p. 1985
Criminal Russia, Random House, 1977
To defend these rights , Random House, 1974