Re: Introductions and a question about consonants

At 15:22 15/01/03 +0100, you wrote:
>En réponse à Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:
>
>> Hello! I'm Pete Bleackley, I'm an astrophysicist by education and an
>> engineer by employment.
>
>Welcome to the list from a Ph.D. student in fluid dynamics! ;)))
>
Thank you!
>> The multiple number, by the way, is distict from plural in that it
>> refers
>> to a definate number of items, whereas plural refers to in indefinate
>> number.
>>
>
>Funny, that's also something Maggel does, and I just replied an email which
>asked more info on it ;))) . Maybe Jan will want to ask you when the multiple
>number is used, and when the plural is (I call them for Maggel "plural
>definite" and "plural indefinite").
Yes, I've just seen those posts. I made up "multiple" because I wanted a
third number, but not the standard dual. 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.

>> My question is, how can I put this on a more systematic basis? Making
>> up
>> ad-hoc mutations for every possible consonant cluster seem like the
>> wrong
>> thing to do!
>
>Usually changes depend on Place of Articulation of the consonants and closure
>of the mouth (stops, fricatives, etc...). So maybe you could organise your
>sounds changes depending on PoA and decide that the same kind of change
happens
>to every sound in this PoA.
>
>But it *may* be that every cluster changes according to its own rules.
It's not
>common (sounds usually have quite a herd instinct and tend stick together,
and
>thus move together) but not impossible. Of course, it seems to me that
with the
>sound changes you already have, it may be difficult to systematise it. But
>maybe a bigger list of cluster changes would help having a better view of the
>problem.
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.

>> Any help will be much appreciated. From what I've seen on websites,
>> there
>> seems to be a really good conlanging community about.
>>
>
>Indeed there is! Happy that you decided to become part of it :)) .
>
>Welcome again!
>
domo arigato!

Pete Bleackley

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