Re: Saprutum Dialects

kam@CARROT.CLARA.NET wrote:

>When the core population left the Mediterranian for the Atlantic seaboard
Will be on your web pages some short conculture backgroud
for this language (where and when it was spoken)?

>Cf. Arabic "huwa" - 'he'; "hiya" - 'she'
>The initial "h" here could correspond to your "#e-" definitive,
>but why is it used for feminine words?
Influenced by Mekhtyish substratum. Because the Mekhtyish
masculine -u- stems were translated by "we-" prefix and
animate -i- stems were translated by "ye-" prefix, for
feminine -a- stems was added prefix with "#",
which was considered as semivowel form of "a".

(BTW, there is another Semitic language in this sprachbund.
Besides the Semitic feminine sufix "-at",
it developed masculine "-ut", animate "-it" and inanimate "-ot".)

(Only local elves did not accept this gender system
and sticks to their clockwise shifted system:
-o for masc., -a- for neut. and  -e- for fem.)

>>> Plural - ?admuwum (n.), ?adma?am [dial. ?admaham] (a.), ?admiyim (dg.)
>>
>> In their dialect, the acc. pl. is  "?adma#am".
>>
>This would suggest a local change /h/ >> /#/.
>Did it merge with original /#/
>or had this already shifted to something else?
The voiced /#/ is in acc. by analogy with nom. /w/ and gen. /y/,
which are both voiced, and thus voiceles /?/ or /h/
was considered slightly  irregular.
Otherwise /h/ remained voiceless, but it is pronounced as velar [x]
rather than glottal [h].

------

Compounds:

>>> kalbu.#animum - a sheep-dog;
>>> kalbu-#anmim - a sheep's dog
>>> kalbu-?admim is a person's dog,
>>> kalbu.?adimum is a werwolf!!
>>
>> "kalbu.?adimum" is a dog trained to catch men, while
>> a werwolf is "?admu.kalbum".
>In this last one you're using a noun (kalbum) as an adjective.
>Certainly adjectives can be used unchanged as nouns e.g.
>"wesawdum" -- 'the black (person)'; "zesawdum" - 'the black (thing)'
>when a noun functions as an adjective it is marked in some way.
IMHO there are four types of adjectives:
1) "apposition" adjective, which means "the one who is an ...",
(root used as noun: CaCC-)
2) "genitive" adjective,
which means "the one who has some connection with an ...",
(internal genitive = adjective derived from noun: CaCiC-)
3) "possesive" adjective, which means "the one who belongs to an ...",
(genitive: CaCCi-)
4) "preposition" adjective, which means
4.1) "the one who is similar to an ...", (keCaCiC-)
4.2) "the one who is in an ...", (beCaCiC-)
...

>Either with the genitive : "?admu-kalbim" lit. 'a dog's man'
>("?admu-yekalbim" could mean the dog's owner perhaps);
>or by using a derived adjective
>"?admu.kalibum" - 'a doggy person',
>a person having dog-like qualities (Caliban???).
But IMHO a person having dog-like qualities is "?admu.kekalibum",
(paradigm: "kalbu.ke#animum" - a sheepish dog)
while "?admu.kalibum" is a man attending dogs
(or selling them or having another job with them).
(paradigm: kalbu.#animum - a sheep-dog)
I supose that "?admu.#animum" is a shepherd,
but if definite, then simply "we#animum" probably suffices,
unless we want to point out that it is not some non-human person,
for example a god or an extraterrestrial:
"welahu.#animum" the divine shepherd,
"weke?adimu.#animum" the shepherd who is an humanoid,
while "ye#animum" is a general term for:
1) "yekalbu.#animum" the sheepdog,
2) "yeke?adimu.#animum" the shepherd who is an android
3) "yerabtu.#animum" the robotic shepherd,
although "zerabtu.#animum" can be used
for the less advanced models of robotic shepherds.

>(This is the reverse of
>"kalbu.?adimum" - a dog having human qualities, a werwolf).
I wrote that
>> "kalbu.?adimum" is a dog trained to catch men,
but thinking about it, it could mean
"domestic dog, dog living with men".

A dog having human qualities is IMHO "kalbu.ka?adimum",
but a werwolf is the one who is both man and wolf,
"kalbu.?admum" = "?admu.kalbum".
(with "apposition compounds", the order does not matter,
in contrast to "possesive and genitive compounds".)

>Note also "benu.kalbayum" -- a 'wolf-child',
I can not understand what means the -ay- here.

>Rawmulam benu.kalbayam yezam! -- Romulus was born of dogs!
Why accusative?

      Pavel