Re: Messy orthography (Re: Sound change rules for erosion)

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 17:22:45 -0500, John Cowan <cowan@...>
wrote:

> JS Bangs scripsit:
>
>> I would say a long time. German has four or five separate plurals
>> that all maintain good currency, with only a slight tendency for
>> simplification. Welsh has something like *nineteen* different plural
>> forms. Native speakers have good memories, so while simplification is
>> eventually inevitable, a reasonable number of plural formations are
>> likely to survive for a very long time.
>
> Or as in the case of Maori verb inflection, where essentially all
> the verbs in the language except recent borrowings are irregular!
> Simplification onto the regular endings is in progress.
Isn't it the case in Sakao that basically every single genetive is
irregular, or did I imagine that?

Odd note: Googling Sakao, it appears on Langmaker.com, which is odd because
I was convinced it was a natlang. It also appears in Ethnologue.com (code
SKU) thus I'm officially confused. Are there two Sakaos out there?





Paul

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