Re: New Language: Zhyler (Noun Classes)

John Cown sekalge:
>AFAIK all noun genders are
>fuzzy, with lots of idiosyncratic exceptions (the famous "women,
>fire, and dangerous things" represents a noun gender in some
>Australian language).
What's strange about that grouping? The third part says it all.

(I don't really know a lot about noun classes, but I can make some
hypotheses.) The thing to remember is that everything came from
somewhere, so find what derivations on a common theme would happen to put
somewhat diverse things in the same noun class. For instance, a noun
class including things that are round could be expanded to include
wheeled vehicles and then tracked vehicles. Or David Peterson's category
of things that can be lifted might include libraries because it includes
books. Hummingbirds might be in the insect category because they can
hover.

There is a reason for most things in linguistics.

The orange
Chris Wright