Re: Too long words

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 05:09:04 -0800, Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
wrote:

>Use a compression algorithm to make them shorter.
>
>For instance, suppose that, in a corpus written in
>your language, you often find the sequence *layaconi*
>(whatever it might mean), then lexicalize it under the
>form *n'gwa* - admitting that you hadn't such forms
>yet.
>
>So, instead of *layaconiyäinang*, you will have
>*n'gwayäinang*, which sounds already much more cute.
>
>The only criterion for compressing or not a sequence
>would be the optimalizing of the text length. The
>longer and the more frequent the sequence, the
>faster you should lexicalize it. This can all be done
>automatically.
>
>(Don't forget to keep a track for the correspondences
>in a lexicon).
That is unfortunately not possible. On the ZBB, Ghost has done this with
Jauequammys or how it was named, one combination that appears frequently is
e.g. c"el. I said reduction is not possible because due to its
agglutinativeness, there are most of the time two-syllabic root words which
receive pre- and affixes to get the meaning. No conjungation or declension.
E.g. the breakdown for "Mecoyain Layayá:ngaris" is (as has been said, word
order is not important, but the word containing the trigger appears
*usually* at the beginning, but does not have to.):

Layayá:ngaris mecoyain.
[%laja"ja:Ngaris me%kojain] (pronounciation following X-SAMPA)

   laya   -(i)ya   -ang     -aris     me-     coya     -in.
[ to read   3sg)    AGT]      PAT     a.PAT    book     TRG


And for Eddy Ohlms: As ZBB user for about a year, I know you're very much
interested in Algonquian languages. I didn't make it to read that one
thread where you and JBurke were discussing about incorporation until end
(you know, the thread with about 60 pages...). Oh yes, compared to such
languages, my words are very, very short indeed.

Carsten