Re: first try at conlanging

En réponse à Joe Hill <joe@...>:

>
> Erm...how DO you mark a plural?
>
In spoken French, by the article (or the demonstrative or possessive adjectives
that replace it), while the noun itself normally doesn't change (there are
exceptions, and of course there are the liaison sounds, which can affect the
noun and/or the possible adjectives, and are quite a complicated matter). So
for instance the singular indefinite article is /9~(n)/ (masculine), /yn/
(feminine), while the plural indefinte article is /dE(z)/. The singular
definite article is /l(@)/ (masculine) or /l(a)/ (feminine), and the plural one
is /lE(z)/. The noun normally doesn't change form (/Om/ means both man or men,
only the article in front of it mark number), except for some which change
ending (like /tRa'vaj/: work becomes /tRa'vo/: works). The adjective typically
behaves the same as nouns.

Of course, there is the delicate problem of liaison sounds (which appear only
at the end of a word followed by a word beginning with a vowel) which partially
depend on gender, number, but also what kind of word follows (for
instance, /Om/ has a liaison form /Omz/ when followed by an adjective beginning
with a vowel, but not when it's followed by a verb beginning with a vowel - at
least in my idiolect. I've heard people doing otherwise, but I find it an
extremely vulgar way to talk -). As an example, I'll take the adjective /gRa~/:
tall, big. Its masculine singular form is /gRa~/, except in front of a noun
beginning with a vowel, in which case it's /gRa~t/. Its feminine singular form
is simply /gRa~d/. In plural, it's in the masculine /gRa~/, except in front of
a noun beginning with a vowel, where it's /gRa~z/. The plural feminine
is /gRa~d/, except in front of a noun beginning with a vowel, where
it's /gRa~dz/. Complicated isn't it? :))

That's also why despite its defects (and the fact that it completely masks the
true nature of French), I find the French orthography quite good, because it
manages (imperfectly) to show those alternations without too many alternative
writings, with orthographic rules than can apply to many words, while the
actual pronunciation is much more word-dependent. For instance, all those
different pronunciations of the adjective are rendered through one form 'grand'
to which you can add the feminine ending -e and/or the plural ending -s. Add
the rule that the last consonnant is not pronounced except before a vowel, and
you have a good idea of the actual pronunciation(s) of the word. It's not
perfect, but it's simple enough to remember it easily, and at least those
orthography rules can be succesfully applied to plenty of other words.

To make a long story short, French marks plural (and gender) by way of
articles, nouns and adjectives only sometimes reflect also the number. It's the
main reason why a French noun can never be used without an article (except
proper nouns, though some dialects of French go as far as using the articles
with proper nouns).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.