Re: question - for organizing a long-delayed language

On Sat, 7 May 2005 22:18:15 +0000, Rodlox R <rodlox@...> wrote:

>I've finally gotten around to starting to try and find organizing principles
>to sort/simplify Metes (that terror of conlang discussions)...but I'm not
>sure how to proceed.
>
>What I did, originally, was to take the PIE words, modify them slightly, and
>type them in X-SAMPA as I thought they would be pronounced.
Much like I did with Sturnan, though I greatly twisted the words in many
cases (random sound changes on each lexical entry).


>Unfortunately, what resulted was that several words had widely differing
>definitions  (ie, "ba" means both "to speak" and "to shine")...and other
>definitions had a great many words (a lotta words that mean "to tear" for
>some reason).
A bias from the reconstructions of PIE. Try introducing severe lexical
drift, and see if you can find a different root for the offending
similarities (i.e. create a new word "shine" from the root for "silver"). Or
you could posit multiple sound-change paths with reborrowing--"speak" would
probably retain the conservative / main-line root "ba" whilst the less
common "shine" would be borrowed from a sister language, changing to, for
instance, "v&".

>here are some ideas I've had thus far...suggestions more than welcome:
>
>teq(m) = 10
>teu- _=_ to do, perform, show favor, revere .
>teu- _=_ to lack, to be wanting; to tire .
>
>teu-teqm = to revere 10; teqm-teu = to lack 10
Both transitive--this would be great for distinguishing unergatives from
unaccusatives, otherwise. So perhaps the verb cliticizes to assign
accusative case (or for Theme/Patient) and remains in place for anything else.

Then if you have an unambiguous ditransitive, you can move focus by not
cliticizing the verb. It'd be an odd construction--you'd be moving the theme
to some sort of oblique argument status--but I'd appreciate seeing it.


>WeIq _=_ clan {social unit} .
>WeIq- _=_ to bend, wind .
>WeIq- _=_ to fight, conquer .
>WeIp- _=_ to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically .
>WeqtI- _=_ thing, creature .
Could you make WeIq-(1) unaccusative with an optional agent / instrument as
an oblique argument? That way, it'd be a one-to-two place predicate
assigning oblique and nominative cases and not easily confused with
WeIq-(2), while coming closer or identical to WeIq(3).

>WeIq-WeqtI = clan of creatures;
>WeIq_WeqtI = to bend the creature;
>WeqtI-WeIq = vacillate the creature  (oops)
>
>
>thank you for your time.
>
>-Rodlox.
Please, sir, I'd like some more.

-Chris Wright

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