A Neanderthal Story
Below is an extract from my unpublished Neanderthal near-future SF novel ‘Uncanny,’ in which I try to transliterate non-compositional Neanderthal speech. What do you think it describes?
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Cold white
Dark cold
Red warm
Hands
Birds sing above
Fire hot meat crackle
Meat smell
Belly gnaw
Eat
Happy
Sleep fire warm
Sister snore twitch
Life eyes watch ears hear
Wake
Noise fear
Others
Voices flat music
Red kick embers smoke sky birds screech above
Thunder noise
Sisters brothers children walk
Cave rumble
Smoke stink
Cave hum
Sisters brothers children fear
Cave shake
Others watch
Small sun flicker
Small stars flicker
New voices flat music
Cave quiet
Others go
Cave open
Cold dark air new smell
No red warm
Sky black stars
New
Fear
Her follow
Sisters brothers children follow
Babies wail near
Birds new songs
New smells
New world