Sigurie

Sigurie is a term used in theoretical linguistics and speculative worldbuilding to describe a cross-modal sign system that combines gesture, symbol, and sound to convey meaning across multiple channels. It is not tied to a specific natural language but serves as a framework for analyzing how information can be encoded simultaneously through several modalities. In sigurie, semantic content is carried by three interacting channels: manual or bodily gestures, visual glyphs or signs, and rhythmic or prosodic vocal cues. The interplay of channels allows for layered meaning, with affective, pragmatic, and contextual information distributed across form, timing, and spatial arrangement.

Core features include: multimodal redundancy, where the same meaning is reinforced through multiple channels; channel-specific syntax, where each modality can follow its own patterned rules within a unified system; and context-sensitive interpretation, where audience expectations influence how channels are weighted. Variants of sigurie emphasize different channels, such as sigurie-gestural (gestures plus glyphs) and sigurie-aural (rhythmic voice cues and sounds).

In practice, sigurie is used as a conceptual tool in scholarly discussions of multimodality and in worldbuilding to imagine how complex communication might operate in hypothetical societies or human-computer interaction scenarios. It is described as a theoretical construct rather than a documented natural system. See also multimodal communication, semiotics, sign languages, augmentative and alternative communication.