Re: Non-Human Features?

On Monday 06 January 2003 8:42 am, Joseph Fatula wrote:
> As I've been making my languages, I've come up with many features that (at
> the time) seemed perfectly normal to me.  But when I tried to come up with
> names for them, there didn't seem to be any already in existence.  Perhaps
> they are features that no one has in the real world.  Interesting to me,
> anyway.  Here are some of them.
>
> Root Repetition
> Where an affix contains something based on the form of the root.  For
> example, in Teuthurev, the affix meaning "the ordinary kind of X" is -ASth,
> where A is an approximant version of the final root consonant and S is the
> strong version of the root vowel.  So if the root is "tac", the whole word
> is "tacwauth".  If the root were "ep", the whole word would be "eprith".
No, this is a quite common feature.  It's usually called reduplication, it
exists in Sanskrit, and some others.

> Number - Entire
> Indicating all instances of the object, as opposed to plural, singular,
> etc. Found in many of my languages.  In one case, it developed from the
> adjective meaning "all" that lost most of its sounds and attached to the
> noun.
Not normal to me, but sensible.  I can't see that there is no existing
Natlang...

> Number - Natural
> Meaning a natural amount of Xs.  If the object in question is normally
> found alone, it means one.  If it is normally found in large groups, it
> means a large group.  If the object is imaginary or impossible, it means
> none at all.  Found in Teuthurev and Ilgoen.
That is quite weird, but it may still exist.  After all, there are six
thousand languages in the world...

> Case - Imitative
> To mean "in the manner of X".  So Tuscan cooking would be "cooking
> Tuscany-imitative".  To walk like a penguin would be "walk
> penguin-imitative".  Found in Morgenon and western Tunugruc languages.
Yes, I'm almost certain about the existance of that.  In fact, English almost
has a kind of one.  'to walk penguinly'? Not normal, but it would still be
understood.

> Case - Transformative
> For "becoming X" or "turning into X".  For example, "I made the wool *into
> cloth*."  Found in Morgenon and continental Tunugruc languages.
It will be in some languages, if not many.  I haven't come across them
though...

> Case - Ingeminate
> For a noun that is the object of the first verb and the subject of the
> second.  For example, "I see *you* washing the car."  "He wants *the dog*
> to go outside."  This is in the Tazhnakt languages.
I can certainly see it, so why not?  It seems sensible...reduces ambiguity.

> Case - Prescriptive
> Meaning "acting on X's orders" or "as X wishes".  In the oldest Tunugruc
> languages.
I'm not sure about this one...but why not?  It makes sense...

> Case - Alternative
> Meaning "in place of X".  In the continental Tunugruc languages.
Hungarian, I believe, has this case...

|hajó| 'the ship'
|hajóhely| 'in place of the ship'

I'm not 100% sure, though.

> Motion - Transitive
> I've got allative (towards) and ablative (away from) variants of various
> spatial cases.  But in the Morgenon and Ilgoen languages there's a
> transitive (through) motion form.
Probably fairly normal...

> ??
> An affix for the quality of having been acted upon by X.  For example:
> breaker > brokenness.  Found in Teuthurev.
I don't get what you mean...if it's in English, then there's one natlang that
does it...

>
> I've made up Latin-ish names for most of these, but I'm not sure if they
> make sense.  All of the concepts work fine for me.  I'd like to know if
> you've ever seen any of them anywhere else.
>
> Joe

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