Re: amman iar greeting [was: Re: Hello...]

> From: Matthew Kehrt
>
> Is the second line a translation of the first?  If it is, where is the
> name 'David'?  'veldonan'?
> On theis subject, is there anything anyone does to signify names in
> their langs?  Some sort of name-morpheme or different phonology?
> -Matthew
\t i   veldonan
\m i   meldon  =an
\g the beloved =masc
\p det n       =gnd
\x the David

David = beloved = meldon

In formal speech, formulaic greetings and when speaking about someone, the
definite article 'i' must be used.  The definite article causes lenition of
the initial consonant of the associated noun (i meldonan > i veldonan).
This is because the definite article in the protolanguage was the prefix
'ir-'  and 'r' causes lenition of some following consonants.  In amman iar,
the definite article has become a separate particle and reduced to 'i'
(except before a noun with an initial vowel), but the morphophonetic
accommodation remained.  Additionally, names are always inflected for gender
allowing the stems to be used for either sex, e.g. i veldonan (masc) / i
veldoniel (fem).

David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates