Re: what is "Suffixaufnahme" ?

Hallo!

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 19:07:19 +0200,
Rodlox <Rodlox@...> wrote:

> > From:    =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rg?= Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
> > > This system was inspired by Northeast Caucasian
> > > languages which do similar tricks, only with postpositions
> > > (which are considered case endings by some, resulting in enormous
> > > case counts).
> >
> > But Suffixaufnahme* is not the reason that NEC languages are said
> > to have huge case inventories.
>
>  I keep seeing that word...so, I ask - what is Suffixaufnahme ?  *curious*
It is a peculiar kind of case marking.  In some languages, when a noun
modifies another noun (e.g., a possessor in the genitive case),
it receives a number and case marker agreeing with the number and
case of the head nouns.  It is sometimes also called `case stacking',
which describes the phenomenon better.  Here are a few simple examples
from my conlang Old Albic:

mbar  lacalas
house councillor-GEN
`the councillor's house'

mberim   lacalerim
house-PL councillor-GEN-PL
`the councillor's houses'

not to be confused with

mbar  lacelis
house councillor-PL-GEN
`the councillors' house'

or

mberim   lacelirim
house-PL councillor-PL-GEN-PL
`the councillors' houses'

Now, put the thing in locative case:

mbaras    lacalaras
house-LOC councillor-GEN-LOC
`in the councillor's house'

or even

mberias      laceliremas
house-PL-LOC councillor-PL-GEN-PL-LOC
`in the councillors' house'

For more examples, see

http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0406A&L=conlang&P=R1449

Suffixaufnahme is a rather rare phenomenon.  It seems that it only
occur in languages that

(1) have a case system,
(2) have adjectives agreeing with nouns in case and number,
(3) have genitives following the noun,

but I am not sure.  At any rate, there are many languages fulfilling
these criteria that don't have Suffixaufnahme.

Greetings,

Jörg.

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