Tatari Faran update

Here's an update on Tatari Faran.

1) In a spate of conlang fever, the lexicon has exploded into a
   whopping 94 entries within the past week. Looks like I'm shooting
   for basic conversational facility pretty fast this time. (The
   progress of Ebisédian was measured in months rather than days!)

2) Tatari Faran has acquired almost all the pronouns it needs now. The
   only missing ones are the 1st person plurals, for which I've yet to
   decide whether or not to have an inclusive/exclusive distinction.
   The current ones are:

	1p singular:	huu	[hu:]
	2p singular:	tse	[ts&]
	2p plural:	huna	[huna]
	3p singular:	tara'	[ta4a?]
	3p plural:	diin	[di:n]

   The 2p and 3p pronouns double as vocative/demonstrative markers,
   with such common expressions as:

	san tse		["san ts&] "You person"
	san huna	[san "huna] "You people"
	diru tse	[di4u ts&] "You girl"
	bata' huna	[bata? "huna] "You chiefs"
	san tara'	[san tara?] "That person"
	tsaritas diin	[tsa4itas di:n] "Those monkeys"

   (And no, it's _san huna_, not _kahuna_. :-P)

3) More thanks to the denizens of #conlang, I finally got over another
   hurdle in making Tatari Faran a head-initial language. It now
   features postpositions:

	tinka aba	["tin.ka aba] under the conifer
	tinka ata	["tin.ka ata] on top of the conifer

   These postpositions essentially behave like case-marker
   replacements. In a sense, this is an "expandible" case-system. :-)

   The postpositions may also modify verbs:

	huu sa  tapa aba   kuen na  bata.
	1pp CVY walk under tree RCP COMPL
	["hu: sa tapa aba "kMn na bata]
	"I walk under the tree." Lit. "I under-walk the tree."

   Note that this is different from:

	huu sa  tapa kuen aba   bata.
	1pp CVY walk tree under COMPL
	["hu: sa tapa "kMn aba bata]
	"I am walking (around) under the tree."

4) More on verb complements: as I've mentioned on #conlang, I've found
   some verbs for which there's more than one complement. For example,
   the verb _tapa_, "to walk":

	tapa ... bata	[tapa bata] "to walk" - the usual complement
	tapa ... ta'an	[tapa ta?an] "to walk to the bottom of"
	tapa ... anan	[tapa anan] "to walk to the top of"

   The complement _ta'an_ also occurs in the unanalysable statement,
   "to rain":

	peira ta'an.	[pej4a ta?an] "It is raining."

   From this, we could infer that _ta'an_ carries the meaning of "to
   the ground" or "reaching the bottom". The word _peira_ is actually
   a neuter noun, not a verb. Another example of this is:

	jilanan murimuun.	[dzilanan mu4imu:n] "It is foggy."
	cloud   envelop-COMPL

   The complement _murimuun_ has the meaning of "enveloping",
   "covering", or "enshrouding", and is used with the verb "to wear":

	huu sa  kaja tsuna    na  murimuun.
	I   CVY wear clothing RCP covering-COMPL
	["hu: sa ka.dza "tsunan da mu4imu:n]
	"I put on the clothing."

   (Note that in Tatari Faran, one "gets into" clothes rather than
   applying the clothes to oneself, as is shown by the conveyant case
   of the 1st person and the receptive case of "clothing". Also note
   the lenition: /tsuna na/ -> [tsunan da])

   Another thing about complements is that when a sentence consists of
   more than one clause, not all clauses may have a complement. See
   (5) below for an example.

5) Conditional statements: the postposition _era_ [&4a], when attached
   to verb, has the meaning of "if" or "maybe". If used in the
   indicative mood, it means "maybe"; if used in the subjunctive, it
   means "if":

	huu sa  tapa era buara   na  bata.
	I   CVY walk if  volcano RCP COMPL
	["hu: sa tapa &4a "bwa4a na bata]
	"Maybe I will walk to the volcano."

	tapa era huu sa  buara   na, tsaritas ko  hamra huu na  aram.
	walk if  I   CVY volcano RCP monkey   ORG see   I   RCP COMPL
	[ta"pa &4a hu: sa "bwa4a na, tsa4itas kO "ham4a hu: na a4am]
	"If I walk to the volcano, I will see the monkey."

   Notice in the second example how the verb complement is present
   only in the second clause. It serves as a "finalizer", or the bang
   at the end, if you will. This construction can also be reversed:

	huu na  hamra tsaritas ko  aram, tapa era huu sa  buara   na.
	I   RCP see   monkey   ORG COMPL walk if  I   CVY volcano RCP
	["hu: na ham4a tsa4itas kO a4am, tapa &4a hu: sa "bwa4a na]
	"I would see the monkey, if I walked to the volcano."

   As you can see, the bang goes with the consequent clause, but not
   with the antecedent clause.

6) The phonology is in a bit of a flux right now... the original /o/
   has become /u/, and a "new" /o/ has appeared that seems to want to
   be pronounced as [O] rather than [A]. Also, if a noun ends with
   _na_, then the receptive particle _na_ seems to want to become
   _nda_ instead. I suspect analogous processes will occur with other
   nouns whose last syllable is too similar to the case particle.

   Sigh... conlangs that acquire a life of their own can sometimes be
   hard to tame.


T

--
Notwithstanding the eloquent discontent that you have just
respectfully expressed at length against my verbal capabilities, I am
afraid that I must unfortunately bring it to your attention that I am,
in fact, NOT verbose.