Korahamla thoughts on Re: Vocab 2.3 and 2.4

On Fri, Nov 08, 2002 at 03:05:26PM -0500, Aidan Grey wrote:

>   Okay, all you ravenous beasts, here is the promised double batch.
Hmm.  This will be tough in Korahamla.  On the other hand, finally I
don't have to worry (much) about whether the examples provided are skewing
the direction of the language... Korahamla is alien enough that I can't
accidentally carry over much in the way of English usage :)

> 2. office
Work: kerám
To work: kesrám
Place of doing work: kesralém

>      The president whose office is oval has moved to the country.
To make an office round: kexsaralém
An office that is round: kexsaraléwm

To use a round office: kakexsaraléwm (this is probably ambiguous by this point)
User of a round office: kakexsaralejéwm

"President", "move to the country": not applicable

> 3. trap
>      The hunter whose trap was empty is angry.
Rabbit: fórat
Catch a rabbit: fokóxrat
Rabbit-trap: fokoxrahát
Make something into (set) a rabbit-trap: cifokoxrahát
One who sets a rabbit-trap: cifokoxrahájt

Something: téj
Contain something: epletéj
Not contain something, be empty: epleteníj
An empty thing: epletenijíj
Find an empty thing: epletenijijslí
Finder of an empty thing: epletenijijslíj

Anger: xapón
To feel anger: axxapón
One who feels anger: axxapójn

Hunt (try to catch) rabbits: fokóxratkafta
One who hunts rabbits: fokójxratkafta

ifokójxratkafta jocifokoxrahájt wehepletenijijslíj wehaxxapójn
"The rabbit-hunter is a setter of a rabbit-trap, a finder of an empty thing,
and an experiencer of anger."

Or:

ifokójxratkafta johaxxapójn wecifokoxrahájt suhepletenijíj
"The rabbit-hunter is angry and setter of a rabbit-trap and it is empty."

This language lacks any sort of tense whatsoever.  Relative tense at the
very least would be helpful.

> 4. operate
>      He knows how to operate a well/pump.
Ok, this should be easy.

Water: sóm
Move water: oskomosóm  (hmm.  I expected oskomsóm.  Weirdness in the joining
                        algorithm.)
Water-moving instrument (pump): oskomosohóm
Use a pump: akoskomosohóm
Be able to use a pump: akoskomosohomotmó (I need more vowel infixes...)
One who is able to use a pump: akoskomosohomotmój

He (his self): kówha

ikówha johaskomosohomotmój

Heaven only knows how many of the above are ambiguous.  Brute-force
word-derivation is not a very efficient way to check, and not practical
to do on the fly while inventing words.

However, I have come up with two possible ways for a speaker to disambiguate
utterances wherein one cannot tell which infix comes first: apply either
an infix, or voicing, in between the two ambiguous operations.

For example, many cases where a word gets two verbs applied to it end up
ambiguous, like:

  blanket-leaver: kirríjfap     "Use the blanket-leaver": kakirríjfap
  blanket-user: kakíjfap        "Leave the blanket-user": kakirríjfap

(This is because -ak- is applied before the first vowel, and -irr- is
applied before the stressed vowel; unless some other operation reassigns
stress or adds a new initial vowel, they will end up -akirr- for any
word with a stressed first vowel regardless of which is applied first.)

Infixing solution: the speaker may apply the special -tte- infix wherever
it will do the most good to prevent confusion.  It is a noun->noun operation.

  kitterríjfap -> kakitterríjfap "Use the blanket-leaver"
  kattekíjfap -> kattekirríjfap "Leave the blanket-user"

Voicing solution: I have not used any voiced stops or fricatives in the
vocabulary of the language.  In cases of possible confusion, the first two
ambiguous operations can be disambiguated from each other by voicing the
utterance right before performing the second operation.

  girríjvab -> gakirríjvab
  gagíjvab -> gagirríjvab

In the second case the new infix does not clearly show that it was not
affected by voicing, since it contains no stops or fricatives, but fluent
speakers would be able to tell what is meant by process of elimination...
I hope :)

Most likely disambiguating strategies would be used when asking someone
which of two options they meant to say.

Amanda