Comment by davideodowd on Walking Sue · 2024-12-18T18:21:53.753Z · LW · GW

Interesting piece, Matthew. One aspect I find particularly interesting as it relates to the evolution of music and language is the use of tonal gradients. For example, questions tend to have rising intonation in most natural languages (though not all). Since humans seem to have an intuitive sense that minor intervals are 'darker' than major intervals, I suspect we have an innate ability to translate pitch content into meaning or emotion, and that this played a role in the evolution of both music and language.

Humpback whales are known for their complex songs which use distinct patterns of pitch (falling, steady, rising-falling) similar to human tonal languages. Dogs definitely go more on tone than phonemes, I think, as you observe with Sue.