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Thalassan Possessive Suffixes

From:Rob Haden <magwich78@...>
Date:Tuesday, February 14, 2006, 15:52
Hey guys,

So I've been mulling over whether or not to put possessive suffixes in my
language, Thalassan.  I think it's a really nice feature to have, given my
preferences for agglutination and inflection. :)  The problem was, how do I
make the forms (relatively) unambiguous?  Well, I think I've found a
solution: simply treat the possessive suffixes as coming from encliticized
genitives.  Without further ado, here are the new Thalassan possessive
suffixes:

1sg -mis < *mi-s
2sg -this < *thi-s
3sg -sjas < *sja-s
1pl -ntas < *mit-as
2pl -tthas < *thit-as
3pl -stas < *sjat-as

Since the possessive suffixes are formally enclitic in nature, they follow
both number and case.  For example, _qavanmis_ ['qa.vam.mis] means 'my dog
(nom.)', while _qaununmis_ ['qau.num.mis] means 'my dog (acc.)', and
_qaunatunmis_ ['qau.na.tum.mis] means 'my dogs (acc.)'.  (Notice the
homorganic nasal assimilation.)

Now I need to figure out whether to have an alienable/inalienable
distinction for possession... :)

- Rob

Replies

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>