Re: wwww! ["?8:]

On 4 Oct, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> Just wondering, how many of yall's conlangs have a way to nominalize
> interjections/exclamations?
    Well, in rtemmu, it's very simple:
don't use "va'i".
    Which is to say, in rtemmu, preceding
a word  with "va'i" turns it into an exclamation.
For example: "shye"  means "the process of
existing"; "va'i shye" means "exist(s)!" or "yes!".
    To make it more like a noun, one must
adjust the rate of change marker to "slow"
or "too slow to notice".
     Thus, one might speak of "existence" (especially
"enduring existence") as "zuv shye"
(= it's form of existance changes too slowly to be noticible);
while one might be awed by, say,  an ancient building that still
stands and exclaim "va'i zuv shye!"
    To really give the impression of nominalization, one could
always count it and even add an article (articles, in rtemmu,
are suffixed to numbers). Thus:
    "zuv wtikuh'uh zuv shye" = a couple of  existences
(wtikuh = 2;   -'uh = indefinite article).
    Of course, nobody ever said that the number-process
has to be restricted to extremely slow change.
One can always replace "zuv" with "fis" (fast change) or
even "utfis" (ut = accelerated change) to get
"utfis wtikuh'uh zuv shye", meaning, depending on context,
"there's two now, but better hurry, they're selling fast and there
won't be two of them very much longer" or else the reverse:
"There's only two now, but very soon there's going to be
a whole lot more!"  (Sort of like, IIRC, the old Bill Cosby
skit about Noah ---he had to keep reminding the
rabbits: "Only two! Only two!"  ;-)    )

Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.