Re: Greetings

Josh wrote:

> Alo, Mate! (That's Matt in Kartesian)
>
>    Yes, you were very warm...in fact almost perfect.  _Tidi_ is the
> accusative case of the noun _tide_ (pronounced TEE-deh... I thought I'd
> throw in a pronunciation tidbit, since this word is commonly mispronounced
> when people see it...)  Currently Kartesian nouns have three cases and
> two moods, resulting in six forms:
>
> nominative _TIDE_       nom. poss. _TIDEE_
> accusative _TIDI_       acc. poss. _TIDII_
> dative     _TIDIIE_     dat. poss. _TIDJEE_ (irregular)
>
> The same holds true for the noun _mote_ so I will not inflect it here.
What are "moods", in this usage?  What does "poss." stand for?  Can you give
examples of simple (glossed) sentences containing these forms?


> _ot_ is EXACTLY the present tense copular element "is".  The verb "to be"
> is _ce_ and has two "classes" of conjugation, which I affectionately like
> to call "class 1" and "class 2" (yeah, the names need work).  _ot_ is from
> class two which has only two forms, one for singular subjects and one for
> plural subjects (_ose_).
What are these classes, and what are the forms of each?  What determines which class
you use?


> So yes, you were quite right with your gramatical analysis, Matt.  If you
> or anyone has more questions, don't hesitate to ask!
Don't wait for us to ask questions--give us a basic sketch of the language!  Some
things to tell us about:

-- Basic word order
-- Word classes (how many, and what are they?)
-- Noun inflection, uses of the case forms, singular/plural, etc.
-- Verb inflection, tense and agreement
-- Are there prepositions?  Postpositions?  Neither?

It would be nice to see some simple example sentences as well, with word-by-word
glosses and translations, so that we can get a feel for the language.

Niokteh telanko!  (Thanks!)

Matt.