Re: Adopting a plural
| From: | Pascal A. Kramm <pkramm@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, October 6, 2004, 22:54 |
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On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 22:44:27 -0400, Jeffrey Henning <jeffrey@...> wrote:
>So one of my conlangs did not historically mark number. Based on contact
>with an "imperial" language, speakers have borrowed that language's plural
>affix and sporadically apply it. Which is more likely...?
>a) It means 2+, just like its source language
>b) It means 2+ and that's emphatic (of some importance in the discourse)
>c) It means "a great many"
I really doubt that they would borrow a plural affix at all. When they never
had a need for it, it's very unlikely that they suddenly change their mind
and borrow one.
--
Pascal A. Kramm, author of Choton
official Choton homepage:
http://www.choton.org