Re: Gender classes, which to use?

At 07:13 25/11/98 +0000, you wrote:
>I am thinking of making a simple gender-class system
>somewhat like Bantu languages. The idea might be to
>use the initial consonant to indicate class, e.g.
>
>B... =3D animal   F... =3D tool             J... =3D groups
>C... =3D plant    G... =3D artifact         K... =3D substances
>D... =3D human    H... =3D other object     L... =3D foods
>
>So if I had 20 or so categories what might they be,
>how best to categorize all of creation?
>
        The system I use for Tj'a-ts'a~n is the following:
- animated:     - human:        - male
                                - female
                                - group
                - animal:       - male
                                - female
                                - group
                - others animated (gods, extraterrestrians, etc...)
- inanimated:   - plant
                - part of animated=20
                - object
                - material
                - pseudo-animated (what moves alone without being alive:
fire,                   planets, earthquakes, etc...)
- conceptual:   - idea, doctrine (everything in -ism)
                - "abstract" object ("a language" for instance)
                - quality (in a broad sense)

        It makes 15 gender classes, so easy to use with consonnant (unless
you're trying to make a Hawaian-like conlang with less than 10 consonnants).
The only problem I can see is that in Tj'a-ts'a~n, the gender system is more
a derivational system (the meaning of a root is precised by the gender
prefix, and a root can have different genders with different meanings).
Also, it's a system with subgenders and most of them are optional (like the
differentiation between sexes for humans and animals). But it can be a
beginning. I think it classes everything I can think of (and allows many
metaphors, what I think very important for a language).

>This might work nicely as a sort of hash table,
>but then it might be very tempting to use the
>initial vowel as well ...
>
>
                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"R=E9sister ou servir"

homepage: http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html