Re: Evidentials for a future English

I'm so glad you brought this up, Estel.  I logged on for this purpose in
particular: a colleague of mine is very interested in researching conlangs
that deal with "future English."  Are you the only one doing this, or are
there others?  In imagining a future English, what besides pronunciation
would change?  Does a future English conlang anticipate future technology?
Enhancements to the future body?  A "post-human/cyborgian" culture?  How
really future are you willing to go?  I imagine she has already checked out
_A Clockwork Orange_.

Sally


----- Original Message -----
From: "Estel Telcontar" <estel_telcontar@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 4:16 PM
Subject: Evidentials for a future English


> I'm trying to think how a future English could develop evidentials.
>
> So far, all I've thought of is that "apparently" could be grammaticised
> into a sort of hearsay particle, marking information the speaker has
> only heard or read.
>
> A few questions:
>
> . What do you think would be a plausible reduced form of "apparently"?
> The best I've thought of so far is /'perli/, derived by a sequence
> something like /@'per@ntli/ > /'per@ntli/ > /perntli/ > /pertli/ >
> /perli/.  Does this seem at all plausible?  Any other suggestions?
>
> . Where would it be likely to appear in the sentence?
> A few possibilities:
> Sentence-initial: perly hy sed that...
> Second position:  hy perly sed that...
> After the verb: hy sed perly that...
>
> . Anyone have any creative ideas for other evidentials and their
> sources?
>
> -Estel
>