Re: Lexeme Request: Water and Fire

> Could you explain a "state of focus" and a "state of
> action," please?
> I can guess what the difference between animate
> and inanimate is. Oh, what the heck you might as
> well explain it too.
Nenshar grew from my curiosity about a language in _The Languages of Pao_
(one of Vance's sci-fi novels). It consists of nouns & their states plus
sequence indicators. All nouns are in either the animate class (i.e. moving)
or the inanimate class (non-moving).
E.g.
u = water (animate class)
nim = fire (animate class)
aba = earth (inanimate class)
hek = air (animate class)
dap = stone (inanimate class)
shu = hand (animate class)

The suffix /-i-/ flips this: /ui/ ["u.i] is inanimate water, /dapi ["dap.i]
is animate earth.

States for nouns are:
-v	in a state of volition
-r	in a state of readiness
-p	in a state of passivity/receptiveness
-a	in a state of activity
-u	in a state of usage
-d	in a state of reference
-g	in a state of completion
-th	in a state of anticipation
-ch	in a state of conditionality/dependency
-sh	in a state of locational reference

Thus:
up dapir shusa [up dap.ir Su-sa]
u-p dap-i-r shu-s-a
water-passive stone-animate-ready hand-I-active
I drop the stone in the water.