Re: OT: Another analytic question

Isn't this how infleting synthetic languages start
out? Eventually it becomes "Johnsu gave obook Maryndo"
or something. Eventually inflecting/synthetic
languages become isolating or agglutinating again
(like English is going)... or so goes the idea.



 --- Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
> Another question regarding analytic or isolating
> languages. I know very little about them, but one of
> my current conlangs seems headed in that direction.
>
> What I'm wondering about is it seems like most
> analytic languages rely heavily on word order to
> mark
> roles, as in SVO, SOV, etc. What I have in mind is
> to
> always mark every part of the sentence with a
> particle
> so that word order is irrelevant to meaning and can
> be
> used to emphasize some part of what is being said.
>
> For example, suppose I used the particles "su",
> "ob",
> and "indo" in the sentence "Su John gave ob book
> indo
> (to) Mary." Now I can shuffle the pieces around
> without confusing the roles of the various players
> and
> write: "Indo Mary gave ob book su John." or "Ob book
> indo Mary gave su John." "su John" always tells us
> that John is the subject no matter where "su John"
> appears in the stream of words that makes up the
> sentence.
>
> Are there any analytic natlangs (or conlangs) that
> completely mark the roles of the participants so
> that
> word order is (relatively) free? Or am I venturing
> into unexplored (or unproductive) territory?
>
> --gary
>
=====
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

	-- William Butler Yeats


	
	
		
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