Re: WHATL calendar for next year (2013)

2008/12/15 R A Brown <ray@...>:
> In the calendar, we have the suffix -άριο in ζωάριο (little animal[s]), and
> -ίσκο in αιλουρίσκο (kitten) and χηνίσκο (gosling). ζωάριο
> and χηνίσκο
> derive from actually attested ancient forms; αιλουρίσκο is AFAIK a TAKE
> neologism, but quite reasonably formed.
Yes, IIRC it's a form I made up. (Also χηνίσκο, stricly speaking; my
dictionary only gave a certain prow shape on a boat as the meaning for
that word, not "gosling".)

> Now, remembering that Josephos Peanou *there* was somewhat more radical than
> Giuseppe Peano was *here* as regards verb forms, would JP be more radical
> and adopt a more strictly 'auxlangy' attitude to these suffixes in TAKE?
> What I mean is, would he have give:
> -ίο (or possibly) -άριο - diminutive suffix (little)
If he did go the simplifying route, I wonder whether he would have use
only -ίο or only ΄-ιο, or whether he would have mixed the two
depending on what was actually used in Ancient Greek (or in later
Greek *there*, presuming that it developed the same way as Modern
Greek's various ancestors *here*).

That was certainly a productive affix on the route to Modern Greek
*here*, but the accent was not always on the ending; e.g. σπίτι <
οσπίτιον, μάτι < ομμάτιον (but παιδί < παιδίον, αρνί <
αρνίον).

> If he adopted a strict use of suffixes, would he have retained those nouns
> where the young has a different word from the adult (like, e.g. in English
> we have 'sheep' ~ 'lamb')? I.e. should 'lamb' be αρνό (as given on the
> calendar) or προβατίσκο <-- πρόβατο (sheep). _My_ inclination is to retain
> αρνό - but I'm not JP   ;)
I just had a thought that one might have a doublet αρνό "Lamb" (in a
religious context) ~ προβάτιο/προβατίσκο "lamb" (in a secular
context)... but then I thought that would be plausible in a natlang
but less so in an auxlang, which is what JP was trying to create.

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>