Subject: Re: Why is high high? From: Pawel Kusmierek <pq(at)nencki.gov.pl> Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 13:49:59 +0200Date sent: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 07:18:14 -0400 Send reply to: Robert Bolia <rbolia(at)FALCON.AL.WPAFB.AF.MIL> From: Robert Bolia <rbolia(at)FALCON.AL.WPAFB.AF.MIL> Subject: Why is high high? To: AUDITORY(at)LISTS.MCGILL.CA > Regarding the question of whether or not the use of the words "high" > and "low" to describe pitch is an Indo-European phenomenon: I > discovered yesterday that in Finnish, which is not Indo-European, the > words for "high" and "low" are also used to describe pitch. > > Bob. > > > Thank you very much for this information. I am the one who posted the original "Why high is high" message and caused a huge discussion that gradually went to topics, which are not very relevant to my questions. But now you gave me an interesting information. Please clarify one matter (I need to be sure): does 'high' in Finnish mean a sound of high frequency (like in English, Polish, etc.) or opposite? Other people who now other non-Indo-European languages or who has non-Indo-European-speaking friends: please contribute and tell us how are sounds described in Chinese, Japanese, Hungarian or any other language! Pawel Kusmierek ************************************* Pawel Kusmierek Department of Neurophysiology Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology 3, Pasteur St., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland tel. (48-22) 659 85 71 ex 379 or 388 fax (48-22) 822 53 42 E-mail pq(at)nencki.gov.pl ICQ 11740175 Email to AUDITORY should now be sent to AUDITORY(at)lists.mcgill.ca LISTSERV commands should be sent to listserv(at)lists.mcgill.ca Information is available on the WEB at http://www.mcgill.ca/cc/listserv