Re: 2nd person inanimate (WAS: Numbers from 1 to 12 in Ayeri)

On Jun 17, 2004, at 1:45 AM, Matt Trinsic wrote:
>> And looking at your Ayeri grammar (to which I found a link in the
>> ZBB discussion), I hit upon a somewhat bizarre phenomenon, namely
>> an animate-inanimate distinction in 2nd person pronouns. One doesn't
>> often talk to inanimate objects; does one need special pronouns
>> for this purpose?
>
> But wouldn't it be interesting to invent a language in which a 2nd
> person inanimate is useful? Maybe a language where it is used when you
> are writing a letter? Viewing it as yourself talking to the paper, and
> the paper later talking to the intended recipient. I am sure there must
> be other interesting ways of making 2nd person inanimate useful as
> well.
> Or maybe I am just a sucker for bizarre languages ;)
>
> ~Trinsic
It could also depend where the boundary between inanimate and animate
is drawn - are plants inanimate?  Some kinds of animals?  If they are,
there's more use for an inanimate 2nd person pronoun.


-Stephen (Steg)
  "quit it with the damn schwa already! i hate phonetics!"
      - my friend e
        (back when we took intro to linguistics together)