Re: Zelandish (was: 2nd pers. pron. for God)

On Wed, 18 Sep 2002 20:04, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> En réponse à andrew <hobbit@...>:
> > Yes.  It's native name is Zelandisch (pronounced the same).  In my
> > journal-keeping it is spoken in the province south of Woepie river,
> > mainly in Land-in-Siet and Leewell, as well as a few outlying towns.
>
> I'd be interested in some phonological explanations :)) .
<snip>
> > they are declined like adjectives.
>
> You mean indefinite articles are declined like adjectives?
>
>   Prepositions can optionally
>
> > combine
> > with the definite article: on+dom=om, toe+dom=toe'm, in+dom=im,
> > et+dom=ettom. (I have caught myself nearly writing them in English so
> > many times...!)
>
> Funny, I don't know of any Germanic language that combines prepositions and
> articles :)) .
"Vomacht" in the Cordwainer Smith corpus, just for starters.  |Von| |dem|
|Acht| ...

Wesley Parish

>
> > Nouns are not declined for case if this is indicated in the article or
> > adjectives.  Strong nouns are declined for number with the historic
> > endings -s, -e or -0.  Weak nouns take the ending -e or -n in the
> > oblique or plural cases.
>
> So weak nouns have no ending in the subject singular form, an -e in any
> other singular form, and -n in the plural? (with or without -e?)
>
> >  Not all nouns have a possessive -s.
>
> Which ones do then? :))
>
> > Generally
> > Strong nouns with -e and all weak nouns indicate possession with the
> > preposition |of| or the possessive pronouns, which can be reduced to
> > -'s
> > and -'r.
>
> Like the Dutch construction "Jan z'n bril": "John his glasses" for "John's
> glasses"? What I like is that in reduced form it makes it look like the
> English -'s possessive form :)) (and behaves in the same way, as a clitic).
>
> > Adjectives have two paradigms, weak and strong.  Weak is more common,
> > used after articles and possessive pronouns.  The weak adjective
> > nearly
> > always takes the ending -e (or -n).
>
> Like weak nouns, or is the distribution different?
>
>   The strong adjective is rarer.
>
> When is it used then? I suppose it can be used when the adjective is used
> alone. Is there any case a noun wouldn't take an article in front of it?
> (since you have singular and plural forms for both definite and indefinite
> articles, I guess nouns without an article are rare, maybe mass nouns
> only...)
>
> > Zelandish has strong verbs with ablaut in the past tense and weak
> > verbs
> > with a dental ending.  There are a lot of irregularities that remain
> > unrecorded.  There are two simple tenses: present and past; indicative
> > and subjunctive.  There are two past auxilliaries: |hebbe|, to have,
> > for most verbs; and been, to be, for verbs of motion and intransitive
> > verbs.  The future auxiiliary is |schie|, shall, will.
> >
> > tell, to tell
> >
> > ik tell  wy telt     ik heb teld  wy het teld
> > du telst jy telt     du hest teld jy het teld
> > hy telt  hylie telt  hy het teld  hylie het teld
>
> If the past tense can only be formed using an auxiliary, you cannot call it
> a "simple" tense. It is a compound tense (like the French "passé composé").
> Or do verbs also have a preterite or simple past conjugation, uncompounded?
>
> Christophe.
>
> http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
>
> Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."