Re: Introductions and a question about consonants

En réponse à Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:

>
> Yes, I've just seen those posts. I made up "multiple" because I wanted
> a
> third number, but not the standard dual.
Well, I actually took both the dual and the plural definite. I just wanted
something different from those trial/paucal/etceteral... ;)))) .

 The Wavoyavol are a nomadic
> herdsman society, similar in some ways to the Mongols, so I thought a
> multiple number would make sense. If the speaker is referring to a
> known
> number of horses, he would use the multiple. The expressions "my
> horses",
> or "your horses" would also use it, since a herdsman knows how many
> horses
> he owns. A reference to horses in general, or a group of horses whose
> number is unknown (eg. "those wild horses") would use the plural. A
> man
> praising his chief's wealth ("Your horses, O Chief, are too many to
> count")
> would use the plural as a way of emphasising the vastness of the herd.
>
So actually the different between your plurals relies heavily on context, while
mine are purely grammatical :)) . Funny how the same idea can be handled
extremely differently. It's one of the joys of conlanging: the possibilities
are endless :) .

>
> This is useful. I may be able to systematise these changes in a
> complex
> way, with about five or six rules that all specify exceptions to each
> other. Most of the exaples were ones that seemed right at the time. It
> occurred to me this morning that nt->d would be a more logical change
> than
> nt->ng, since both components have the same PoA.
>
I agree. Sound changes rarely *invent* something. So if a cluster contains
consonants of the same PoA, it's quite likely that the resulting simplification
will be of the same PoA. There are exceptions though, as usual :)) .

>
> domo arigato!
>
Dou itashimashite.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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