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Re: Human Song

From:Clint Jackson Baker <litrex1@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 18, 2001, 9:03
Hello all!
I wanted to clear up some grammatical difficulties
brought up to me with regard to my language (at
present I have a word for "human"--kaya--but not for
"song").

As to why I keep a strict word order despite a subject
marker: it is an aesthetic issue.  I realized that, if
a subject marker were kept, a reflexive verb were
used, and an S-V order were used, then there would be
four unstressed consecutive syllables, losing some of
the musicality of my lang.  And my language seems to
use reflexive verbs along the lines of French, ie,
with some frequency.

So why does the subject marker remain, even with a
strict word order?  Without the marker, a sentence
would read "S/he walks the dog," but with the marker,
"The dog walks."

And for more complicated grammar:
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him
drink."

2nd pers affix + "able" + "lead" + present tense affix
"horse" + direct object postpositional affix
"water" + "to" affix
"but"
2nd pers neg affix + "able" + "make" + present tense
affix
3rd pers affix + "drink" + present tense affix

Any further advice etc more than welcome.

Clint

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Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>