Jonathan Knibb wrote:
(I wrote:
What determines whether ketide vs. ewetide?
>a neat alternation-- I hope not a typo --)
><<<
>
>It certainly isn't! And thanks for asking.
>
>The syntactic part of the answer to this is that there are three
'operators'
>as I call them (I think Telona syntax is sufficiently unlike any natlang
>syntax for me to have to invent my own terms for these things!). Between
>each pair of adjacent words in a sentence, there lies one of these
>operators. The consonant alternations occur as part of the realisation of
>two of the operators (the third appearing as a zero morpheme).
>
>The phonological side is that there are regular alternations between two
>series of consonants, called 'hard' and 'soft' for want of better names.
>They go like this (hard >< soft):
>
>p >< m t >< l
>c >< n k >< w
>b >< f d >< s
>r >< ch 0 >< h
>
>The phonetic values are the same in X-SAMPA as in the orthography for [p t
c
>k b d s m n l h]. Otherwise, f = [f\], r = [4], ch = [x], and most
>relevantly to your question, w = [M\], i.e. a voiced velar approximant with
>lip-spreading. I'm aware that the alternations are a little unorthodox,
but
>hey, it's my language and it doesn't have to look naturalistic if I don't
>want it to :))
>
>With this in mind, the actual answer to your question is that 'ewetide' is
>morphologically '+ketide'. A word beginning with a hard consonant and
>preceded by the + operator gets a harmonising vowel prefix and the
consonant
>softens. The point of the + operator in the phrase 'webi ewetide' is to
>allow 'webi' (look for) to semantically govern 'ketide' (mushroom). 'Webi
>ketide' would mean 'a mushroom looking for something'.
>
>Does that make sense? Thanks again for your interest.
Aha, yes. I recall you posted about that, but it's always good to see these
things in action in examples.
---------------------------------
>'O dear white children casual as birds,
>Playing among the ruined languages...'
>Auden/Britten, 'Hymn to St. Cecilia'
I need to look into that---- the lines seem to be a take on Wordsworth's (?)
"...bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."