Re: New TriCons

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:48:13 -0400, Jeffrey Jones
<jsjonesmiami@...> wrote:
>
> Noun stems have one of the following forms:
> CCVC   -- definite and absolutive
> CCVC@  -- definite and genitive
> C@CVC  -- indefinite and absolutive
> C@CVC@ -- indefinite and genitive
>
> The plural and ergative forms are based on the absolutive stems, by adding
> suffixes. In the genitive forms, sometimes a final @ must be replaced by /e/.
>
> Adjective stems have the forms:
> CCVCV
> C@CVCV
>
> Adjectives aren't worked out very well yet.
>
> A noun may have a possessor prefix; a definite noun must have a possessor
> prefix or the definite article prefixed.
I forgot to mention the strong nouns (those above are the more common weak
nouns). Strong noun stems have the forms:
CCVCe   -- definite
C@CVCe  -- indefinite
in the singular, and change /e/ to /a/ for the plural and to /o/ for the
extended plural. Weak nouns add /na/ and /no/ for the plural and extended
plural if the stem ends in b/v, d/dh, dz/z, dj/j, g/gh, or h and /ta/ and /to/
otherwise (m-stems insert @ before the /t/). The genitive forms of the plural
and extended plural are the same as the absolutive, as is the case of the
strong noun singular.

The ergative case is formed by adding /i/ to the absolutive forms, except that
in the singular of weak nouns, /ni/ or /ti/ is added instead. The reason I call it
the ergative case is that it isn't used for the subject of monovalent verbs.

I also forgot to mention that the partitive of a noun is formed by using a
possessor prefix or the definite article on an indefinite stem.

So, has anyone else done one of these lately?

Jeff