Re: More on the Hermetic Language

Paul Burgess wrote:
> "Standard" is the plain, "unmarked" verb. Inceptive
> indicates an action or state which is beginning-- e.g.
> "golis," "it is red"; "golliis," "it reddens." Telative
> similarly indicates an action or state which is ending.
I use "cessative" for that in my Uatakassi.

> Durative indicates an action or state which is extended
> or repeated-- relative to the standard aspect, which may
> (depending on the particular verb) already signify a
> more or less extended or repeated action. And causative
> is, well, causative-- am trying now to remember from
> which language I purloined the idea of a causative verb.
An earlier stage of Uatakassi had a causative, marked by the prefix lu-,
however, in the Classical language that was no longer productive and was
just a fossilized part of certain verbs, for example, _luiuin_ "kill"
from _iuin_ "die"

> Aspects cannot be combined within a single verb.
> "Combining" aspects requires the use of an auxiliary
> verb, usually the verb "vaoliso," "to do." For instance:
Uatakassi also can't normally combine aspects, however, there are
certain auxilary verbs that can be used for combining.  For example,
_lifai_ "begin" can take the place of the inceptive aspect if one needs
to combine it with another aspect, e.g., _kassilifaitasnu_ "He has
started to sing" - kassi-lifai-tas-nu sing-begin-he/she-perfect
(incidentally, _kassi_, "to sing", has no connection with Kassi, the
people who speak Uatakassi)

The 7 aspects in Uatakassi are:

Perfect: The result of the action still holds true (e.g., with "fall",
   would mean the person's still on the ground)
Inceptive: The action is beginning
Punctual (marked by zero affix): An action that occured or will occur in
   an instant, or a brief period that can be thought of as an aspect,
   e.g., "he fell"; when used in present tense, indicates an action
   in the immediate past, e.g., "he just fell"; with stative verbs
   and verbalized adjectives, it indicates "became", e.g., "it became
   red"
Non-Punctual: An action occurring over a period of time, sometimes
   equivalent to progressive.  Obligatory with adjectives and stative
   verbs that don't have connotations of change, e.g., "it's red";
   also indicates a state that existed for a time, e.g., "I create
   conlangs".  This is the most common aspect in the present tense
Habitual: An action which occurs in distinct moments over time, e.g.,
   "He runs every day".  This can overlap with the non-punctual.  The
   difference between, for example, "I create conlangs" in the
   non-punctual and in the habitual is that in the non-punctual it
   indicates that the actions are connected.  Each instance of
   creating conlangs isn't distinct, but rather builds upon the
   earlier instances.  Habitual would imply that each instance of
   creating conlangs would involve a new conlang that is created
   and then left.
Cessative: The action is stopping
Prospective: The action is being looked forward to; similar to the
   English "be going to" or "would" in cases like "He already knew
   that he *would go*"

> zodis, "he moves it around in a circle"
> zodliis, "he starts out moving it around in a circle"
> zodpais, "he moves it around and around in circles"
> vaolliis mna zodpaisoth, "he starts out moving it around
> and around in circles" (lit., "he starts out doing the
> moving it around and around in circles")
What's the -oth at the end of _zodpaisoth_?  Is that a case marker?

> The Hermetic jussive, on the other hand, expresses
> action performed under real or perceived necessity or
> compulsion or obligation.
Oh, neat.  :-)

> >How do you do equatives? (as ADJ as ...)  Are
> adjectives also
> >agglutinative?  How do the negative forms work?  Would
> the forms of an
> >adjective meanings, say, good be "bad", "worse",
> "worst" or "not good",
> >"less good", and "least good"?
>
> You're on target with the six forms of comparison in
> adjective and adverb--
Which one?  :-)  Is negative comparative of "good" "worse" or "less
good"?

> By and large, it's a matter of some orders being quite
> common, and some orders being (to a greater or lesser
> degree) rarer. I can think of a few restrictions on
> order-- e.g., an attributive adjective would, I
> *believe*, never precede the noun it modifies.
Uatakassi goes further and places *all* adjectives, including numbers
and demonstratives, after.  :-)

> I can also think of a *very* few instances where
> spelling would be ambiguous from pronunciation. But most
> of the time, in Hermetic, it's pronunciation ambiguous
> from spelling.
Uatakassi has a few ambiguous pronunciations.  There's no way of
distinguishing /tSwi/ from /tSiwi/ or /Swi/ and /Siwi/ or /dZwi/ for
/dZiwi/ (and only those three cases), but that's extremely rare.  I
think, also, that there might not be a way of distinguishing /ts/ and
/tS/ or /dz/ and /dZ/ or /ki/ from /Ci/.  My current version of their
syllabry does distinguish those, but since it's a recent distinction, I
might eliminate it.

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