czHANg wrote:
> - Bahasa Indonesia (Malay/Malayo-Polynesian/AUSTRONESIAN)
A non-native speaker weighs in:
>* what I would like to know is in regards to:
> basic word order;
SVO; but really quite free; Topic/Comment is more accurate.
> main clauses (OV or VO);
VO; but passivization is very frequent.
> adpositions (prepositions or postpositions);
preps.
> genitive - possessor -and head noun (N-G or G-N);
N-G in the standard (rumah saya 'my house') but the reverse is common in
colloquial and in outlying areas, esp. Moluccas (saya punya rumah lit. 'I
have house')
> head noun and modifier (N-M or M-N);
N-M, inflexible
> relative clauses and head noun (N-RC or RC-N);
N-RC, pretty inflexible; also, the rel.pronoun _yang_ MUST be the subject of
the vb in the RC. A nice complication.
> comparatives (Adjective-Marker-Standard or Std-Mkr-Adj);
Adj-Marker-Std.
> verbal auxiliaries (Aux-V or V-Aux);
Aux-V, inflexible
> question particles and/or question words (sentence-initial or
>sentence-final);
Yes-No particle apa(kah) is S-initial; Q-words are usually initial but need
not be. Kemana ia pergi? 'where he go?' ~ ia pergi kemana? ~ ia, kemana
pergi(nya)? ~ ia, pergi(nya) kemana?
And then there's -lah, which I never mastered.
> affixes ... if any (prefixing or suffixing).
Both. Nouns: a variety of pfxs. and suffix -an; verbs, several pfxs. and 2
sfxs. -kan and -i (and sometimes -an)
>
> I am plannin' on basin' the syntax of a conlang _Trÿpang_ or _Sowth
Chinÿ
>See Pijjin Inglis_ (_ÿ_ is "schwa") on my findings. {ok, I am - AGAIN! -
>changin' my conlang pidgin - from Kaoz Babul Pidjin to Trepang... same
basic
>aim - different, more intriguin' approach. Besides, I am _loco_ over any
>language named after an edible sea slug and Bislama/Beche-le-mer is already
>taken ;)
Never tried that particular delicacy, though almost stepped on them in the
ocean.
As you can imagine, a very important trade item in the old days; the
Makassarese went as far as northern Australia to collect them.
Probably the majority of AN languages have VSO; Malay is kind of the
exception, historically speaking.