Re: Group Conlang: affix morphology

Carlos Thompson wrote:
> >Here's to round up the proposals about affix morphology.
> >
> >We have two affix systems so far:
> >System A: case_tag + root + screeve_tag
> >System B: gender_tag + root + case_tag
>
> Vote for System A
Am I the only person who wants to vote for B?  It's more naturalistic.
Very few (if any) languages have case-prefixes.  In fact, the very few
cases of case-prefixes are actually inflected demonstratives that were
fused to the noun, and therefore also incorporate gender.

> >For this, we have two alternatives:
> >1. Use (C)V- and add a semivowel glide when a vowel follows.
> >Example: pe- + ak- = pejak-;  o- + ak- = owak-
> >2. Use (C)VC- and change the last -C- when a consonant follows.
> >Example: ut- + pop- = uspop-;  ik- + pop- = ikhpop-
> >(i. e. change stop > fricative)
> >Although also,
> >3. Use both systems according to the affix.
Well, we could also have CV- --> C-, but that would limit the number of
prefixes possible.  How about adding nothing.  What's wrong with pe- +
ak- --> peak-?  If you definitely don't want VV sequences, add a glottal
stop, thus pe?ak- OR have prefixes in the form CV(C)-, where the (C)
indicates a consonant which is only used before vowels, thus, perhaps
pe(t)- + ak- --> petak-, but pe(t)- + pop --> pepop.

OR, you could simply require prefixes to already conform to the
syllable-structure rules, thus ut- would be an impermissible prefix to
begin with.

> >The same goes for postposed affixes, except that -CV(C) should
> >not be allowed (we don't want to change the root, right?).
Well, why would you need to change the root?  If the root had a
permissible syllable-structure, it wouldn't matter what the affix was.

> I would like -C postfixes and -V postfixes for most common parts of the
> screeve, and some unstressed vowels coud be add for our constrains' sake.
Suffixes, they're called.  If we were to add unstressed vowels, perhaps
we should have a single vowel to always add, perhaps schwa, or maybe
/a/, thus

> qiv+s => qifys
For this, _qivas_ or _qivza_/_qifsa_

> tru+o => truwo
Going back to my earlier comments on prefixes, tru?o.

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