Re: CHAT: The [+foreign] attribute

 --- John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote:
>
> ObConlang: how do people's conlangs handle foreign
> words?  Lojban has an
> elaborate mechanism for borrowing (the Lojban idiom
> is "taking" -- they
> aren't returned) foreign words and applying native
> prefixes that both make
> them fit Lojban's morphology and give a clue to
> Lojban-speakers who don't
> recognize the foreign word what it might be about.
> Thus cidjrspageti
> is spaghetti, but the prefix "cidj-" reflects Lojban
> *cidja* 'food'.
>
bac uses (pro)nouns in apposition, which is marked by
the suffix |-a| on the apposee

the usual root used is |tat|, which can be used in all
its derived forms

so from the borrowed |reyg| 'monarch' you can get

|tata reyg| monarch
|atta reyg| kingdom
|talta reyg| royalness
|tarta reyg| reign

tensed nouns can also be formed

|tayta reyg| future monarch
|attawta reyg| former kingdom

the verb 'to reign' can be expressed in on of the
following ways :

|Per thata reyg| / |Pera reyg|
be somehow thatistosay monarch / be thatistosay
monarch

HOWEVER, you can use other (pro)nouns instead

|sot| I
|sota reyg| I, the monarch

|bar| food
|bara spagettiy| spaghetti

|bara reyg| king/queen of foods, food fit for a
king/queen

( a brief note on food and measurements : this
appositional construction is also used for
measurements and enumeration :

|botar| wine
|ler| cupful
|-uy| suffix form of |buy|, one

|botara leruy| a glass of wine

|cok| chocolate
|pit| finger
|-ek| suffix form of |lek|, two

|coka pitek| two fingers of chocolate )

from this you'll notice a restriction to the rules on
borrowing : bac word form is usually either CVC or
CVxCVC ( where x is a modifier letter ). if a borrowed
word can be heard as a native word, it is often
treated as one. therefore |cok| /tSOk/ is acceptable
for 'chocolate'—at least when referring to the english
stuff : real chocolate could quite possible have a
true borrowing to reflect the difference in
pronunciation where it's made )

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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