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Re: Some isolating verb patterns

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Saturday, January 15, 2005, 1:40
--- Rene Uittenbogaard <ruittenb@...> wrote:

> Gary Shannon wrote: >
<snip>
> On the other hand, since > even > > the most complex grammars in the world were > "designed" > > through daily use by people who had no knowledge > of > > grammar whatsoever, perhaps I am just ignorant > enough > > to make design choices that are more "natural." > ;-) > > It sounds natural indeed. And as long as you're not > aiming > for a 100% isolating language, keeping a few > irregularities > here and there can only make your language more > charming :) > > (Yes, I like irregularities - just look at the table > of > personal pronouns in Calénnawn :P ) > > Éylo, > René >
I've already "discovered" a couple of other irregularities in my embryonic conlang that make it less than 100% isolating. If I'm not careful it might evolve into an semi-inflecting language. I can see case marking particles might glue themselves to the articles (and pronouns like some, many, few, ...) and eventually become a whole set of declined articles and pronouns. It would be interesting to have pronouns and articles be the only things that are inflected while verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. were not inflected. Maybe the personal pronoun could even carry the tense of the verb. How strange is that? <I+past> give <some+accusative> apple <the+dative> teacher. "Mepa give somac apple theda teacher." Plural would be marked by using a plural article (some vs. a or these vs the) rather than inflecting the noun. And the case of the noun would be marked by the case ending on the article (or pronoun). --gary