Re: Grammatical Summary of Kemata
| From: | Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, December 11, 2001, 22:23 |
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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.
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