Alien shark language

[DePaw]

Do sharks make any sounds? Google gives mixed results, most saying they are mute, while links saying they bark. I ask because I have an alien race of shark-like creatures that live in the under-ice ocean of Europa. They have extra limbs, on their chest/bellies, used for manipulation. Otherwise they look like normal earth sharks. They are a tribal race, living in collectives, with one female brood queen, breeding like ants or bees. The brood queen makes all the babies, while the other females are workers; the males are warriors, protecting the tribe, and mating with the brood queen.

So what sort of language would such creatures have then?

[Rhetorica]

Regardless of whether sharks do or don't vocalize, there are plenty of marine animals that use sound to communicate. Alien sharks definitely don't need to be constrained by their Terran counterparts! Consider dolphin chirps (if they breach the surface) or whalesong (if they don't) for inspiration.

[DePaw]

They don't breach the surface, the ocean is covered in a thick sheet of ice, over the whole planet.

I think I will research whalesong a bit, as you suggested. So you think it will be a musical language of sorts? That would be most likely? Dolphins also make clicks as well as chirps, but I really liked the idea that sharks can bark. Alse if they did sing like whales, the quality would be very different, just from the sheer size difference as these creatures are much smaller than whales. Would that make tte pitch higher or lower though? I forget my music/physics stuff on this' but my gut instinct says that t would be higher, as children have high pitched voices, and small dogs yap more than bark... I would like this language to be able to be heard by humans, even if they don't understand it. Whales sing in infrasonics a lot don't they? So higher pitch from that would be audible most likely. Just thinking out loud here atm...

[DePaw]

Ok after researching whalesong and the differences between whale and dolphin noises I have an idea of how my aliens talk: they use a modified swimbladder (normally used for up/down movement in water, kind of like a floatation device). Anyway the swimbladder has air in it, which they can pass through another as of yet unnamed organ that vibrates. This forms the sound. The air then hits against a wall of soft muscle in the back of the mouth, that translates the vibrations from the air to the water.

So there are three components to their sounds, the pushing the air out of the swimbladder, the vibration modulation, and also the opening/closing of their mouth.

So an example sound could be effective exhale, C# modulation with an opening mouth. Another could be effective inhale, F modulation, closing mouth. Oh and they may distinguish the length of the sounds too...

I have no idea how to short hand this or write it in a way that will allow people to grasp what they are reading without it being horribly long and not nice to read at all... unless anyone has any ideas?

[So Haleza Grise]

Maybe I'm being unimaginative, but I think an underwater communication could only be based on tone. Other kinds of phonetic distinctions aren't likely to be very clear.

[DePaw]

How does this sound?

Four components: ex/in-hale, note, opening/closing of mouth, length.

aoui - vowels indicate hale and mouth. Close is closing, open is opening. Front is exhale, back is inhale. Vowel is double/tripled for length.

Consonants indicate note of sound: abcdefg - ptkfsx(r/l?), +h is sharp.

Example:
Exhale, opening, c#, length two - khaa.
Inhale, closing, F, length one - xu.

[DePaw]

Ptkfsxr, written as their voiced equivalents for distinguishing between two octaves: bdgvzyl.

[2+3 clusivity]

Jaws would lead me to believe it sounds something like this . . .

/ʭʭʭʭʭʭʭʭʭʭʭ/
<chomp chomp chomp gnash chomp gnash>

[cromulant]

Maybe I'm being unimaginative, but I think an underwater communication could only be based on tone. Other kinds of phonetic distinctions aren't likely to be very clear.

Water is a much better medium for sound to travel in than air. Sound is much clearer under it.

[clawgrip]

I'm just letting you know I'm in support of you making an alien shark language.

[Torco]

Don't count on it: fish hear rather well! much better than us, underwater. The articulations would probably be different, since fish don't exhale and all.