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Re: Grammatical Summary of Kemata

From:Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 11, 2001, 22:23
On Sunday, December 9, 2001, at 09:50 , Rune Haugseng wrote:

Éan edòrir! (from Matthew Kehrt's Eviendadhail)

> I don't expect anyone on the list will remember me - I posted a few > times earlier this autumn (or fall, if you prefer), but I've been > horribly busy at school since then - no time for conlanging at > all. Nevertheless, I've managed to write a sort of "grammatical > summary" of my conlang Kemata. >
I remember seeing a few messages from you. Welcome back--as a (grad) student myself, I definitely understand! (Of course, sometimes long dry lectures provide a perfect opportunity to surreptitiously work on a conlang.)
> PHONOLOGY > --------- > > Kemata's phonology is pretty boring (I made it years ago, and I don't > want to change it now). >
I do "boring" comfortable phonologies too. You're not alone. :-)
> The primary stress is always on the penultimate syllable. In words of > more than three syllables composed of several parts, parts longer than > two syllables receive a secondary stress on *their* second-to-last > syllable, if this is more than one syllable away from the main > stressed syllable. >
By "several parts" are you referring to heavily inflected words, compound words, or something else?
> PRONOUNS > -------- > > Personal pronouns are generally found both as verb suffixes and as > separate words. >
Neat!
> Kemata also has a pretty weird (as far as I know, at least) pronoun, > which I call a "place-holder pronoun". > > Its form is: > Subject a > Direct object at > Indirect object ihat > (Verb i) > > This has two uses: > - to not say something known from context > > A Kematian waiter might, for instance, say: > I nul abu atnul? > i nul a-b-u a-t-nul > - question S-2p-? -DO-which, > for "What would you like to order?", everything being known already > (I don't think it would be very polite, though). > > - to indicate voice: > > Ankila a anerle. > ankil-ha a aner-le > kill-Pt - animal-DSgN > The animal was killed. > > (This isn't exactly like voice, of course - you can't differentiate > between "I killed the animal" and "The animal was killed by me".) >
Neat! In the first use, is this set of pronouns usually considered slightly rude, or was that just the particular waiter-example you were giving?
> NOUNS > ----- > > A noun (except names and such) always has an article suffixed to it. > > The articles are: > Singular Plural > Definite Indefinite Definite Indefinite > Normal form -le -ne -zu -su > Unique form -ti -pi -la -ho > Normal negative form -ha -no -ro -vai > Unique negative form -wu -re -ko -li > > The unique articles denote that the noun as a unique specimen of its > kind (or several of them). The unique form of a word sometimes has an > idiomatic meaning, such as "raidole", the house, vs. "Raidoti", the > world, or "nezerne", a lord, vs. "nezerpi", a king. >
This is just plain, plain cool. I wish I'd thought of it myself! :-) I especially like the idiomatic meanings you've cited. Any other notable ones?
> Possessives are formed by one of the following suffixes: > Normal form (owner) Reverse form (owned) > Normal possession -no -ki > Association -ndu -wai > "Possession" through -zik -val > having made something > Composition (i.e. what -nut -kar > something is composed > of) > > Either the owner or the thing owned is marked, not both. The marked > word comes first. >
I'm enamored of your owner/owned markers, as well as the creator/composition possessives. Does the former occur in any natlangs? Also, if possible, could I trouble you for greetings or farewells in Kemata to be included on the conlang greetings page? http://pegasus.cityofveils.com/greetings.phtml (I know, I know, I'm soliciting shamelessly....) Yoon Ha Lee [requiescat@cityofveils.com] http://pegasus.cityofveils.com Schrödinger's Cat: Wanted dead and alive.

Replies

nicole dobrowolski <fuzzybluemonkeys@...>
Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Rune Haugseng <haugrune@...>