Re: Introduction to Kerla

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 21:57:42 +0200, takatunu <takatunu@...> wrote:

>Will "lenpo" become "lempo"? "Lesca" > "Lecca"? etc. (Xth time this
question
>is asked re. conlang with "simplified" phonotactics ;-)
There would actually never be an original root "lenpo."  Nor would there
be "lesca" or "lecca."  Sorry, I should have specified that doubled
consonants are not allowed.

>Is "cause" "the cause" or "to cause"?
>Ever thought of having inalienable features? Like "smell", "name", "abode",
>"spouse"?
I would say that "cause" would be "to cause," and "the cause" would be
derived.

"Name" and "spouse" will probably be basic arguments.  "Abode" will
probably be a compound, such as "live-place."  I'm honestly not sure yet
about what to do with "smell."

>How do you make compound words?
Hmm, good question.  Other than simply gluing root-forms together, do you
have any ideas?

>No root with "i"? How is it that a genuine "creolanger" sacrifices one of
>the major phonems of a language on the altar of such futile feature as
>plurality ;-)?
Sorry, I meant that i cannot be used as the final vowel of a root.  It's
certainly allowed in the initial syllable -- i.e. words
like "mirka," "cilme," etc. are perfectly legal.

>I used Excel (with the "random" function).
I've written a Java program that reads English words from a text file,
attaches them to created words having the phonology and phonotactics I've
described, and outputs the new words and their meanings into a new text
file.

>What cases? Why inflect adjectives for number if verbs apparently don't?
Good point.  Perhaps then adjectives won't agree for number or case.

>If you use verbs as prepositions like you say below, how will you
>disambiguate the following?
>Man say girl go-to school
>"The man says that the girl goes to school"
>"The man says 'girl' and goes to school".
>How do you say "from" in "The wall protects the city from the enemy"?
Say man girl go-to school
"The man says that the girl goes to school"

Say man girl and go-to he school
"The man says 'girl' and goes to school"

There will probably be a "focus" particle or verb which has a general
meaning of "concerning" or "regarding" and can be translated into various
English prepositions:

Protect wall city focus enemy
"The wall protects the city from the enemy" (lit. "The wall protects the
city regarding/concerning the enemy")

There might also be a middle/medio-passive form of the verb "protect"
meaning "be protected from," and there will probably be an instrumental
particle or verb generally meaning "by" or "using."  So, you could also
have:

Protect-(middle) city enemy by wall
"The city is protected from the enemy by the wall"

>No subordinating pronoun?
>dog see man
>"the dog sees the man"
>dog see man
>"the dog that sees the man"
>dog see man him
>"the dog that the man sees"
Actually it would be this:

see dog man
"the dog sees the man"

dog see man
"the dog that sees the man"

dog see man him/it
"the dog that the man sees"

>Again, how do you make compounds? will the case suffix be stuck to the last
>of the components?
Yes.

>Currently, the number of predicate inflections resembles the verb paradigms
>for most creoles.  There are markers for anterior (i.e. past) tense,
>irrealis (i.e. subjunctive) mood, imperative mood, non-punctual (i.e.
>progressive) aspect, passive voice, and intransitivity.  Unfortunately, I
>haven't decided on the final forms for these yet.
><<<
>Very unfortunate indeed. Reading your dry description without one single
>concrete example does not lure comments unless the reader "was there and
>did that" already. Frinstance, if you refer to creole verbs I take it for
>granted that the verbs are not inflected and the mood etc. are expressed
>with auxiliaries.
Sorry about that.  I was reluctant to provide concrete examples while I was
unsure about the morpheme assignments.  But I can give some tentative
examples:

Viska me kirsu.  "I see the horse."
Viskade me kirsu.  "I saw the horse."
Viskava me kirsu.  "I am seeing the horse." (i.e. in the process of seeing)
Viskavade me kirsu.  "I was seeing the horse."
Viskasu me kirsu.  "That I see the horse."
Viskasude me kirsu.  "That I saw the horse."
Viskavasu me kirsu.  "That I would be seeing the horse."
Viskavasude me kirsu.  "That I would have been seeing the horse."

>Why? Since Kerla is headfirst, why not make it prefixing?
I consider roots to be the most important elements.  Besides, I like
suffixes a lot more than prefixes :)

>It's difficult to say with no concrete example to flesh it out. I have the
>feeling you want to make a creole-inspired, easy grammar with the
>"universally pronounceable" CV(S)CV touch---but you still keep some
>eurostuff (plural, suffixes) at the same time. You didn't say whether it's
a
>priori (me/te/se is european though) and whether it's naturalistic (the
>banning of "i" in roots makes it doubtful).
>This being said, it's great to welcome a new conlang. Congratulation!
>
>Mathias
Sorry again.  It's mostly a priori... the pronominal series was not chosen
for its similarities with European languages, I just like those sound-
shapes the best for the respective pronouns.  Plus, plurality is not
something that only European languages have.  I would argue that most
languages have a device for specifying plural.

Thanks for the welcome :)

- Rob