ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores sound as a cross-cultural construct and as a medium for defining one’s alignments with the nonhuman environment. A fundamental premise is that people frame their interactions with the nonhuman world just as they frame their alignments with other humans. A well-worn cliche about language from the naval world resurfaced in the words of the US secretary of defense, who put off a journalist’s question as he quipped, “Loose lips sink ships.” The writings of the seventeenth-century poet Basho, translated by Robert Hass, also attest to human alignments with nature. Basho urges his students to “make the universe our companion and enjoy the falling blossoms and scattering leaves”. The myth fragments just presented supply a particular kind of evidence for the sound alignment underlying Runa’s views of their relationship with nonhuman life-forms. The author concludes with a description of ongoing changes in Runa’s use of ideophones.
