Re: Two Questions for OurTongue

En réponse à Rob Haden :


>1. In Pre-OurTongue, I have a particle wa (or perhaps wâ), which comes from
>Proto-Language fha 'come/go around.'  The meaning becomes more
>like 'concerning' in Pre-OT, thus its association with pronouns like the
>following:
>
>Meî wa dapá.  'Concerning me, (a) hit.' > 'I am hit.'
>
>Does this seem realistic?
Not bad :) . Your "wa" looks just like the topic marker in Japanese, and
has the same meaning. Was it intentional?

>2. Later on in the development of OurTongue, I'd like to have a scheme for
>deriving mediopassives from actives, using a simple formant -u (from the
>above wa).  To do so, it appears that wa has to change from modifying the
>pronoun to modifying the verb.  Would such a change be realistic, let alone
>possible?  If there is a realistic way to do it, what is it?
Well, the only problem here is the change of word order. For the formant to
be -u, you need to put "wa" after the verb. This would be difficult to
explain. However, what could happen is that in the original construction
you give: "meî wa dapá", the "wa" stops being felt in association with the
pronoun, but with the following verb instead. This is very realistic. In
this case, it would lead to the formation of a formant u-, i.e. a prefix.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.