Re: Zaik! (Hi there!) - Description of Lyanjen

Matt McLauchlin wrote:

> I see I've already been introduced by Barry. My name's Matt; I'm a
> linguistics major (just finished my first year) at McGill University in
> Montreal. I've recently undertaken a conlang project, Lyanjen, as mentioned,
> and I'd love to get input (of any kind - "You know, this reminds me of..."
> "Oh, I see. That's usually called..." or whatever. I need the help -
> remember, I'm only a first-year!!)
Welcome to the list, from a fellow gay Canadian conlanging linguist who likes
Montreal (I spent a semester hanging out in the linguistics department at McGill
a few years ago, working on Malagasy).

As someone else whose conlang makes creative use of case-marking, I must say I'm
quite interested in your nominative/ergative/absolutive system.  Could you give
some more information on how it works?  From your few examples, it appears that
the ergative case is associated with agents, absolutive case with patients
(anything undergoing a change of location or state), and nominative with themes
(arguments of states).  Is that right?

Also, don't be afraid to include snippets of the actual conlang alongside your
literal translations.  Half the fun of reading these posts is savouring someone
else's invented words...

Cheers,
Matt.