Re: Diving In...

En réponse à Doug Barr <dbarr@...>:

> Hello, all!
>
> I just joined the list a week or so ago - I've been lurking to see
> what's what, and I'm very happy to have found a group of kindred
> linguistically-minded maniacs. I feel quite at home. <smile>
>
Welcome! Indeed you will feel at home I think :) . Can you share with us what
you made in conlanging?

>
> Polysynthetic vs. agglutinating languages:
>
> In the polysynthetic language I have some familiarity with - the Iqaluit
> dialect of Inuktitut (the so-called "Eskimo" language, "Eskimo" is
> pejorative)
Doesn't it come from a word meaning "fish-eater"? Still pejorative, that I can
understand.

, the common image used in teaching materials is of a train:
> you have an engine (the root) and a caboose (the grammatical ending),
> but between those two morphemes you can infix a theoretically infinite
> number of "post-bases" or train-cars in any order that has meaning.
>
For the little I know of Inuktitut, the image is really vivid :) . The only
example I know (I cannot find it right now, but I remember the translation) of
Inuktitut is a single word meaning "we didn't manage to find a place to rest",
based on a root meaning "to be tired". I always dreamt of making a language
which would allow such kind of thing :) .

[snip very instructive example]

>
> Inuktitut also has the useful feature of a "null" base pi- used to affix
> post-bases to. It has no meaning in and of itself, it just serves to
> attach post-bases to, when they aren't included in the main word or are
> used by themselves as the relevant feature of a word, especially in
> answering questions.
>
When I created the null root 'n-' for my agglutinative language Azak, I was
wondering if what I was doing was realistic. I'm happy to see that at least one
natlang has the same feature.

> Not sure if this will help or hinder - hopefully it will be slightly
> helpful to someone somewhere.
>
Very helpful I think, at least for me. Do you know any Inuktitut grammar
available on the web? I would be interested to learn more about this language.

Your linguistic knowledge is impressive! I'm very happy that you came here on
the list!

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.