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Re: Grammatical Sketch of my Conlang

From:Daniel Andreasson <noldo@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 12, 1999, 22:56
Hello Austin and welcome. I have some comments.

Austin wrote:

> Noun Declension (singular/plural) >=20 > Nominative: -u/-ili > Accusative: -un/-ilin > Genitive: -ua/-ilia > Ablative: (prepositional phrases): -umu/ilimu >=20 > Nom: -ko/-kum > Acc: -kon/-kumun > Gen: -koa/-kuma > Abl: -komu/kumumu
Same question as Nik. Why two groups? I guess there is a really cool answer to this. [I just read the answer, please ignore this.]
> (no particle): present (I love) > bara: present affirmative (I do love) > dul: present progressive (I am loving) > chak: imperfect (I was loving)
Sorry if I'm petty, but shouldn't this be=20 'past progressive' or something. Or do you mean the aspect 'imperfective' as in 'not finished'? I'm a bit confused.
> hadat: past (I loved) > hsara: past affirmative (I did love) > vishol: perfect (I have loved) > fwesh: perfect progressive (I have been loving) > gav: pluperfect (I had loved) > godo: pluperfect progressive (I had been loving) > go: future (I will love) > tsan: future progressive (I will be loving) > dryel: future perfect (I will have loved) > akam: future perfect progressive (I will have been loving)
In all I think it is a nice and exact way of representing tense and aspect in a combined way (at least in the sense we indo-europeans mean ;). This really gives the lang a European touch, which its phonology somewhat lacks. I do the same thing in my conlang Rinya but the other way around (though not with the verbal system as you do). Hmm... I should stop now before this gets too weird... :)
> Mood Particles: >=20 > (no particle): indicative > tal: infinitive > yer: subjunctive > lem: interrogative
Infinitive isn't a mood, afaik, or is it?. Do you mean imperative? I haven't heard of interrogative as a mood, but then again, there are lots of things I haven't heard of.
> Adjectives and Adverbs >=20 > Adjectives, including nouns in the genitive, come directly after the =
noun they
> modify, inflected exactly like that noun, except for nouns in the =
genitive. =20 From a language universal point of view, modifiers usually precede their heads in OV langs (standard example Japanese). But then again that's just a tendency, which you should completely ignore. Swedish, the best and most expressive language of all times, doesn't follow this 'rule'. It is VO and head-final. (as is English...) On the other hand, Swedish and English do have prepositions (rather than postpositions if the rule-breaking had been complete).
> Better: The slightly worn power line is a great distance above Jack's =
head. Bizarre example. I like it. :) Good luck, Daniel Andreasson http://conlang.nu