Re: A little entertainment

On Sun, 19 Mar 2000, Sally Caves wrote:

>> >A couple of things: (1) Conjunctions - the model
>> >I'm working on has different conjunctions
>> >between adjectives, between nouns, and between
>> >clauses. Is this a realistic idea or is it
>> >overkill?
>
>No.  Teonaht makes a distinction between "and" used
>between nouns and adjectives, and "and" used between clauses.
>I hadn't thought to make finer distinctions than these;
>that's nice.
I like the idea of different sets of conjunctions between
nouns, adjectives and verbs; though I do wonder how unwieldy
that might become. Perhaps common conjunctions could be
differentiated (like "and") but infrequently met conjunctions
could be the same (like "neither...nor...but").

Talarian uses the same sets of conjunctions for all locations.
Though several mean "and", there are distinctions: -he means
"and" in general; "-pe" means "and also"; -ne means "and not";
etc.

>> 4. Change nothing; just place the whole subclause in the
>> same place you'd place an adjective (as in Japanese).
>
>        I love the blue-her-eyes girl?
>        (I love the girl whose eyes are blue)  Yup.  T. can do
>        that.
Talarian would have to do something like this, or the example
below; as there are no relative pronouns.

Eka-he nimam-tam saweltenus  fflachhawusha cameo.
I-and  woman-the of-two-eyes of-brightness love

or

Eka-he nimam-tam fflachhawasaweltenus cameo.
I-and  woman-the of-two-bright-eyes   love

Eyes, of course, are dual; the compound alleviates the
need for the double genitive. "Blue" isn't a valid colour.
Fflachhawas means "bright coloured: blue, blond, yellow,
tan, purple". Valid colours are black (including dark grey),
shining (white, silver, light grey), red-orange, grey-green-
brown and bright.

>Me:
>Or 5.  Change the syntax of the subclause.  In Teonaht
>it mirrors that of the main clause:
>
>        Or, even, in some forms of T:
>        Il lorfa-vim rinil beto revpomennyve elry ke.
>        The she-wolf with-eating-of-the-boy I saw.
>        WHEW!
Eka-he welham-cam paratahatomtel wehhetim.
I-and  wolf-the   boy-eating-LOC saw

Padraic.

>Sally