Re: Beek

On Sun, Sep 14, 2003 at 10:26:35PM -0400, Dennis Paul Himes wrote:
>     I recently moved.  In doing so I came across some old notebooks of mine
> containing my design of Beek (/bek/), an early conlang of mine.  This is a
> language which I had referred to in vague terms on this list when discussing
> my conlanging history.  I would have guessed that I'd designed it in the
> early '70s before I found the notebooks, but the notebooks are Yale
> University notebooks, which implies that it comes from my New Haven days,
> which would be from '78 to '80.  One of the notebooks comes with some maps
> of a continent, with mountains, rivers, and cities marked, but no names.  I
> think I know what the story was to be for the fiction Beek was being
> designed for.  In any case, it was never written.
[snip]

> R   /r/ or /r=/ (or however you indicate vocalic R)
Mmmm, I like syllabic consonants. :-) (Pity Ebisedian doesn't have any.)

[snip]
> In addition, the vowels a,u,e,i,o were often doubled, indicating tenseness,
> so
> AA  /a/
> UU  /u/
> EE  /e/
> II  /i/
> OO  /o/
Interesting. So /beek/ is [bek] whereas /bek/ is [bEk]?

[snip]
>     Beek is partially inflecting and partially isolating.  There are four
> noun genders, masculine, feminine, neuter1, and neuter2.  Epicene nouns are
> included in neuter1.
What's the difference between neuter1 and neuter2?

> Nouns have three numbers, singular, dual, and plural.  Adjectives follow
> nouns, and agree with them in gender and number, except that adjectives
> have no dual, plural adjectives agree with dual nouns.  Nouns have two
> cases, normal and possesive.  Personal pronouns distinguish between
> inclusive and exclusive "we".
[snip]

That sounds rather like Malay, which has adjectives that follow nouns and
distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive "we".


T

--
Why is the sea always restless? Its bed is too rocky to sleep on.

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