More than a little intrigued

Watching the H2 channel, I came across the series called UFO files.  I watched some of the program before moving on to the NFL channel, but the part of the program I came across was the segment in which a man was interviewed about his experience with aliens.  When he mentioned that he knew how to speak to aliens, the interviewer asked him to speak in the language he communicated with them.  The man obliged, translated the words he spoke, then went on to say he knew 3 alien languages.

Hearing the language was fascinating.  I rewound the program to listen to the speech again.  Well, maybe it was.  I know that many scientists think the universal language is math or binary code.  NASA has sent several probes into space with messages using coded messages in math and computer programming.  NASA has never released a response to their messages if they have received any  The famous show Close Encounters of the Third Kind, depicted communication with aliens in music and color.  And at least one documentary has explored this possibility.

The language the man spoke was similar to Morris Code.  He spoke with short clucking sounds punctuated with voiced d taps.  So I compared the human languages of the Earth to this alien language.  At first blush, I was reminded of the sounds of the South African Bantu languages that have clicks in their speaking.  I also thought of the sounds of Arabic to someone who doesn't speak Arabic. He can  hear the k sound easily in all the words and the dominance of the umlaut u sound.  And although the man in the program didn't use k and u,  he did repeat a luh sound frequently.  In the case of Morris code, it uses long and short sounds or lights to spell letters , but it really doesn't have a grammar all its own.  Many wouldn't call it a language.

The translation of what the man spoke, "Hi, how are you. How have you been doing this afternoon?" has an easy grammar to it.  There is a greeting word, two interrogatives, two forms of BE, a present participle, a determiner and a time of day.  So did the ds and luhs match the forms of words in the translation?  It was certainly possible.  There was a lengthening of the sound at the end for the time of day.  There were extra luhs for the change in the form of BE representing the difference between the present and present perfect ideas. There was a slightly different vocalization before the first luh as if a greeting had a different tonal quality, and a different pattern in the ds and luhs that occurred in the same position as the present participle.

I would love to hear more than the small segment given on the program, and I would love to hear the other languages this man knew for comparison's sake.  Of course, it is always wise to entertain the idea that alien languages won't have developed the same way as human languages.  So, we should compare the language to animal languages and compare it to nothing but its own sounds and syntax.  Chimp and Gorilla language have different tones for the grunts and aspirations, but it has never been determined that there is an order to language, and only in one case has there been an attempt to show tense.  Dolphin and whale language have been scrutinized as well without too much success.  Most accounts of their languages relate to momentary information or emotions.

I don't know what exactly the government has in the way of analysis of alien languages, but I know that they have authorized a protocol for contact with alien species.  It's all very fascinating. It's the stuff of legends and myths, but it's still intriguing to think that others have developed a method to communicate differently, probably, from us.