Many cultures have developed secondary means of linguistic communication as alternative to speech. Some of the common alternative means of communication involve drumming, slit gongs, whistling and signing, as well as secret or sacred alternative spoken languages.

The course will give an illustrated overview of some central secondary means of communication across cultures, and analyze their relevance for linguistics, cognitive science, anthropology and musicology. We will exemplify and discuss different practices of speech surrogates in African, Native Australian and Native American cultures. After some lectures focusing on the wordsmith and musicians of traditional Senegal, the course will end with a mini-workshop of drum linguistics with select Senegalese artists.

Students will take active role in developping the course, by selecting literature and audio-visual materials, in group presentations and by preparing interviews with African musicians who will illustrate their expertise in one of the meetings. There will be some assignments during the course; the final assignment will consist of a short essay about one of the subjects in the course, on the basis of a list of subjects about different cultures and forms of communication.