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Re: THEORY: Evolution of infixes/ablaut?

From:Padraic Brown <pbrown@...>
Date:Thursday, March 16, 2000, 15:49
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000, Patrick Dunn wrote:

>Hatasoe uses infixes, but I don't know *how* the evolved. English only >has one infix -- namely, -fucking-, as in "absolfuckinglutely." It's >evidently an intensifier. (Note: I've actually seen this in a linguistics >textbook, so don't go getting offended on me :) )
Well, _any_ of Those Kinds of Words can be used as infixes. I remember being taught that the -n- of stand is an infix as well.
>I *do* know how some vowel alterations arose. In some words, a suffix >causes an anticipatory change in a previoius vowel. So, say, in the >language Gluk (which I just made up on the spot, ain't I clever):
Thou are so clever. Gluk is such a lucky name for a language! But do tell us what "stik" and "blat" mean. :)
> >protogluk oldgluk gluk > >stik stik stik >stikum stykum styk >blat blat blat >blati bleti blet >
Padraic.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------- > Living your life is a task so difficult, > it has never been attempted before. >