--- Amanda Babcock <ababcock@...> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 10:55:22AM -0400, Paul Roser
> wrote:
>
> > The language you refer to is Tariana, and Dr.
> Aikhenvald published a
> > grammar on it within the past year or so (I think
> it's Cambridge University
> > Press, but can't remember and the book is at
> home). Tariana is an Arawakan
> > language from South America, but similar nominal
> complexity occurs most
> > notably in a number of Australian languages like
> Kayardild and
> > Mayali/Bininj Gun-Wok (Gunwinjguan languages,
> IIRC).
> >
Thank you, Amanda.
What gets me about such a system, is that the speaker
would have to be aware of all the roles a noun is
going to play in all the embedded clauses. And I wondr
just what kind of anaphoric complexities thee are.
> > [incredibly complex templates removed]
>too bad, I'm sure they were something to see.
> The blurb for this book on Amazon makes the language
> sound like something
> which, if it didn't exist, we'd have to invent. The
> speakers traditionally
> marry outside their language (a new idea on me), and
> are therefore likely
> to speak 5 or 6 languages each.
I wonder how such a tradition arose.
Furthermore, they
> have imported grammatical
> features from other languages. Talk about a
> conlanger's carte blanche...
>
> Amanda
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