What I'm thinking of is a tonal language.
Could it happen, and why?
On a related note, I am told some written - and important languages - have, or used to have NO vowels. Arabic, Hebrew, maybe other...
YHVH was written litteraly this way, by example, vowels added mentaly - there is still debates how to prononce old hebrew, methink.
You're thinking of the Zapotecs, I've heard the same thing about them.IIRC one Mesoamerican tribe had a language that was so tonal that on large enough distances they (successfully) communicated entirely in whistles (whose pitch represented the tones).
Also IIRC, some Polynesian languages consisted about 70% of vowels (that is, in average speech, there were 2-3 vowels to one consonant, and many common words had no vowels at all). They were also (IIRC again) not even tonal...![]()
Well yes, quite different. Zapotecs have no fear of consonants. I don't not even sure that whistles would count as vowels for that matter.Well, the whistle language was somewhat different from the spoken one, wasn't it?