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Re: Workin' on some stuff.

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Thursday, August 24, 2000, 2:57
Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> BTW, is there a rule-of-thumb figure for how much of a language could be > irregular?
Not that I know of. Some langs have no irregular morphology, others have hundreds of irregular forms. In Watakassí, there are few irregularities. They're limited to "hidden consonants" (consonants that show up in the plural, and the genitive and dative singulars, always fricatives, e.g. wa-kadí/waf-kadísi, sun/suns, -i = plural), fricative/stop alternations (wa-saklás/waf-sakláti, moon/moons), three different ways to pluralize long vowel stems (I - shorten vowel and add -ki, most common, e.g., pifláa/pifláki, machine/-s, II, shorten vowel and add -yi, e.g., su-tluníi/su-tluníyi, hand/-s, III, shorten vowel and add -i, su-váa/suv-vái, that/those), and a single unique irregularity, la-lásta/laf-lássi, bird/birds. Verbs have no irregularities that I've discovered, provided you take (as is the norm) the first person singular as the basic form. -- "Their bodies did not age, but they became afeared of everything and anything. For partaking in any activity at all could threaten their precious and ageless bodies! ... Their victory over death was a hollow one." ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor