Re : Nattiki (was: Re : New Conlanger)

Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 15/05/99 09:44:47  , Matt a =E9crit :

<< Mathias wrote:
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 > << bob =3D currently doing (prefix) >>
 >
 > Funny : "bob" was the aspectual mark of the class-conlang someone on the=20
list
 > (can't remember who) told us recently.
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 Yes, the language is Nattiki, which my students (in an honours Intro to
 Linguistics class) are currently inventing (under my guidance).  The
 prefix "bob-" is indeed indeed used to mark the present progressive:
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         chee     "run"
         bobchee  "is running" >>
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So this is a remarkable coincidence. I wonder how M. Ruhlen would deal with=20
that. Maybe you should alert him.

<< [snip]
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 You'll notice from the above examples that Nattiki has
 the following characteristics:
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 -- Basic word order is VOS
 -- Nouns are marked for case (Nominative vs. Accusative)
 -- Adjectives precede the noun, and are also marked for case
 -- There are no pronouns, only agreement affixes on the verb
 -- Subject agreement is marked by prefixes
 -- Tense is marked by prefixes
 -- Object agreement and possession are marked by suffixes
 -- There is no singular/plural marking on nouns
 -- There are no articles ("a", "the")
 -- Wh-words move to the front of the sentence in questions
 -- Relative clauses have a wh-question-like structure
         (a la French or English)
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 That's enough for now.  I'll report more later.
=20
 Matt. >>

Please do.

Mathias