Re: Novel ConGrammar

On Monday, September 27, 2004, at 12:38 , Rodlox wrote:

> inspired by an actual archeological object.
>
> This language appears to be SVOn (subject-verb-object-number), in which
> the
> number can be an actual number, or simply "possession of (#)".
SVO i understand. But what does 'number' relate to? By position it would
seem to imply it relates to the object. Does this mean that only the
object can be singular or plural and/or can be possessed? Is the subject
always ambiguous as regards number? Clarification please.

>
> constanants:
>  -sk-  [s][k]
>  -pth-  [pT]
There must surely be other consonants than these (I assume you mean
'consonants' and not 'constants'). The hyphens each side presumably denote
that these are medial clusters. Are they the only ones? Or if these are
the only ones attested on the archaeological fragment, how do we know the
pronunciations at all?

Is there any significance in that -sk- is given as [s][k] (separately)
while -pth- is given as [pT]. In short, what are we being told about the
consonants of the languages & what has this got to do with _grammar_?

> vowels:
> (optional vowels do not change the word by their presence or absense in
> the
> written word's meaning;
So what is the purpose of these 'optional vowels'? Are we talking about
optional epenthetic vowels, such as the second [I] that occurs in some
people's pronunciation of _film_ as ['fIlIm], while most say [fIlm]?

> obligatory vowels do change the word's meaning by
> their presence or absense).
Nothing remarkable here. It happens in English _cat_ and _cut_ and in
French _dos_ and _des_.

>  optional vowels:
>   -au-  [2]
>   -ou-  [
>   -a-  [@]
What is the sound of |ou|

>  obligatory vowels:
>   -e  [E]
>   -ee  (long |e| sound)
do you mean [e:] (as in german _Beet_) or [i:] (as in English _beet_)?

>   -hi  [h][I]
Is this meant to be a consonant+vowel comb, as [h][I] suggests, or an
aspirated vowel? In any case, a solitary occurrence
among the vowel inventory seems a bit odd.

>   -u  [3]
If the hyphens mean anything, and I assume they do, then it would seem:
- no initial vowels occur;
- only three medial vowels occur, and these are optional with no effect on
meaning;
- four final vowels occur, one of which is aspirated. These are not
optional and different vowel will give a word a different meaning.

Also, it appears the languages has only front and central vowels and lacks
back vowels entirely.

> tenses:
>  definate past (that which can be remembered)
>  indefinate past (beyond memory's reach)
>  present  (definate & indefinate?)
I don't understand the third one: present (definite & indefinite?). Could
you explain?

>  indefinate future (farther than one can think)
>  definate future (fore-sight & planning)
I fail to see how the future can ever be definite. Foresight & planning
can do much to increase the likelihood of a situation - but it can never
be definite.

Exactly what is this archaeological fragment? It seems to be very scant on
some features, for example the consonant inventory, but can apparently
give use complete picture of the tense system. How can this be?

>  [now to see if there's a response  this time].
Yep - there is   ;)

Ray
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

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