Re: Lïzxvööse Verbs I: Active Tri-Consonantals

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> On Saturday, August 11, 2001, at 12:45 PM, Dan Seriff wrote:
>
> > Lïzxvööse (formerly Glïzxfööse) is a consonant root language, with roots
> > allowable of one to four consonants. Tri-consonantals are by far the
> > most common, followed by di-consonantals. There are no monoconsonantal
> >
> <very sheepish look>  What do the umlauts signify?  I haven't been paying
> enough attention to this list.
Forgot to specify that. It's just fronting or raising, depending on
which vowel it is. For example, <i> is [I] where <ï> is [i], and <a> is
[A] where <ä> is [a]. Doubled vowels are just length.

> > verbs, since these are usually basic nouns/pronouns and grammatical
> > particles. Four-consonant verbs (and nouns) are almost always compounds,
> > and in the case of verbs, are usually conceptuals (like "understanding",
> > etc.).
>
> What are some compound-forming processes in--err, I'm afraid to attempt
> those umlauts.  <wry look>  Are they regular and "productive" (?  I seem
> to remember the term from Payne's _Describing Morphosyntax_) or irregular,
>   or some of both?
I haven't decided yet. I've only got one 4-consonantal compound, so I
don't have the data to work out a productive or non-productive
formation. The one I do have is "understanding", root [k-m-n-w]. It's
derived from [m-n-w], "seeing", and the preposition [ke],
"in/to/towards". I imagine that many of them will fall into a similar
pattern (i.e., preposition + pre-existing root).

> > Lïzxfööse only has two primary tenses, present and future. Past tenses
> > are marked by circumfixes, and, as a result, are lumped in with aspect
> > and mood (to be dealt with in a future post). The passive voice is
> > marked with a prefix ('eng) derived from the verb "to be" (root '-n).
> >
> Question (also possibly pretty ignorant since I haven't been reading
> enough posts): how is "past" (as mere Yoon Ha's might understand it)
> expressed, or is it conceptualized in an essentially different manner that
> does not divide it from present or future?
Past tense is expressed more like an aspect than a tense, really. As
such, it takes a circumfix, and has no independent form. I'll get to
that stuff in a future post when I've got the time. I'll do a post on
di-consonantals later this afternoon (Sunday), probably.

> > 3-consonant roots:
> >
> > Present active, example root t-w-zc [t-w-D] - "forcing"
> > This root is interesting, because of several pronunciation
> > irregularities involving the semi-vocalic nature of /w/, namely:
> >         /w/ -> [u] / C_#, V_C
> >         /w/ -> [u:] / C_C
> > Lïzxvööse is full of sound shifts like this that drastically affect the
> > *pronunciation*, but not the underlying form (or written representation)
> > of many words.
> >
> Neat...I'd be mispronouncing words all over the place, but neat.  :-)
Don't worry, me too. At least until I figure out all the sound changes.

> Query: how did you choose "zc" for [D]?  I would have guessed [tS] or
> something random from the orthography/transliteration/meep?
When I originally designed the orthography, I was trying to keep
digraphs to a minimum. It didn't work, but I kept what I had anyways,
'cuz it was cool looking. My choice of letters was fairly systematic. By
analogy with the pair <s>-<z>, I've got <c>-<zc> for [T]-[D] and
<x>-<zx> for [S]-[Z].

> The sound changes are quite interesting and I would love to hear a spoken
> sample.
>
> > Future active (technically it's a future participle and "to be" copula),
> > example root g-d-gg [g-d-g"] - "being excited" (general non-sexual
> > excitement):
> > This verb is actually a stative crossover, or a formerly stative verb
> > (with the meaning "being red"), which has been given an active form, and
> > an idiomatic meaning. Lïzxvööse has many such crossovers.
> >
> Are color-term crossovers common?
Most of the stative verbs for color have an active crossover, but
they're usually vulgarities, and not appropriate for a family-oriented
list such as this one. :-)

--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal

Honesty means never having to say "Please don't flush me down the toilet!"
                      - Bob the Dinosaur

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