Re: Senyecan nouns (for Doug Dee)

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Doug Dee <AmateurLinguist@A...> wrote:

>Another gender-related question: how do you deal with mixed groups,
>like "The woman and the centaur are (both) angry"?  Which form
>of "angry" would be used, given that "woman" and "centaur" are in
>different classes?
Rule 184 in the Senyecan grammar: A predicate adjective when
qualifying more than one substantive, agrees in gender, number, and
case with the nearest substantive.

sun göénun søn µiréšöøncöe méløn nésa.
the woman the centaur-and angry they-are.

Rule 183 is similar: An attributive adjective qualifying several
nouns agrees with the nearest and is understood with the rest.

sen ðévaÞen éšöen réðuncöe nufóóla.
the injured horse rider-and they-fall.

What I find interesting is the use of the personal pronoun prefix on
the verb.  In these examples the subjects have been loquent beings in
the u-class.

If the subject is of another class, the appropiate personal pronoun
prefix must be used.

søn µiréšöøn nøfóóla.   sin aabélin nifóóla.
the centaur he-falls.   the appletree it-falls.

This was not evident in the example above because the verb began with
a vowel.  In this case, the vowel of the personal pronoun prefix is
not used.

nu-fóól-a, but n-és-a.
he-fall-IND    he-is-IND

Thanks for the question.  You're keeping me on my toes.  And at 63,
that's not always easy!!

Charlie