Writing science fiction; constructed languages; Tendu skinspeech
Amy Thomson's Tendu Skinspeech

The ETs (the Tendu) in Amy Thomson's The Color of Distance use a language she calls skinspeech that is displayed on the speaker's skin and is under voluntary control. Not all the questions a linguist would ask are answered in the novel (no reason why they should be), but a lot of information is provided -- including information on teaching and learning the language, and on translating and interpreting. .

The display takes three interacting forms: colors, which convey emotions; pictures, which convey narration, factoids, and the like, and patterns. Patterns modify both colors and pictures; they also include fixed forms like the "odd little hook" that marks past tense, individual's names, and arrangements of dots and bars and shapes -- like the three horizontal bars for "yes," the three vertical bars for "no," and the colored dot inside an oval for "food." Good food will require different colors for the pattern than bad food. The display (roughly equivalent to pixels on a computer monitor screen turning on and off) uses the whole body, with the chest serving as usual display area for non-emotional information.

I've seen "color languages" in science fiction before; all, as described, were really codes, unsuitable for use as true languages. Tendu, in which the color/picture/pattern components in simultaneous interaction would provide a huge potential inventory of forms, is far more plausible. I don't know if it would work, but I can imagine that it might. That's progress.

Here's a partial list of the color/emotion inventory: Pink=surprise/excitement; blue-grey=longing; brown=embarassment; purple=curiosity; deep green=satisfaction; orange=fear; pale grey=dread; misty grey=regret; beige=disgust; deep blue=approval; bright red=rage; deep gold=sexual desire. The more intense the shade, the more intense the emotion; thus, deep brown means shame. Thomson assumes that the stranded human character has no trouble distinguishing among all those various shades of a single color, which may be quite a stretch. But help is provided by her computer, which can record everything (as a video camera would), and has linguistic analysis programs hardwired.

Colored patterns and pictures turn up in sequences like: "Irritation forked like lightning" down X's spine; "a ripple of deep burgundy irony" passes over X's body; "bars of negation flicker rebelliously" on X. Since the Tendu can display anything they can visualize, the human is able to teach them to write "Standard"; they just display the letters of the alphabet on their chests as they would any other graphic item. And lying is possible in skinspeech, by making a false display or suppressing a valid one.

Finally, the Tendu use a few sounds -- a "chitter" to get someone to look at the display, a "croon" during mating -- and a few bits of nonvisual body language, like the brush of the backs of the speaker's fingers over the watcher's knuckles that's used to convey messsages like "thank you" and "you're welcome" and "no problem" and "not to worry."

Tendu is ingenious....