Re: Immediate future tense

---Keenan <makeenan@...> wrote:
[snippage]
> Nothing has inspired more change in the Okjwn (my conlang) than
joining
> this list.
   Funny how that happened, isn't it? Most people report that their
languages were slowly plodding along quite nicely until they
discovered this list, then BANG! a flurry of motivation and change.

> Since I joined last month I have:
>
> Changed the spelling.
> Webbified it.
> Changed the sounds of the tense markers.
> Expanded the grammar.
   In one month? Not bad. In two years Enamyn went from an
agglutinating philosophical language with a highly regular and
simplified grammar (think of Ro, and you have a basic understanding of
what I first imagined it to be) to an enormously complex inflectional
language with irregularities galor. In other words, a 180 degree shift
in design goals. Along the way, the orthography changed five times,
the phonology changed four times, and the grammar has _never_ stopped
changing.

> This may be good, it may be bad. I really intend to finish Ok someday.
> So hopefully someday I'll feel no more changes will be needed.
   Finish? Finish! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! <Wipes a tear of laughter
from eye> That's the second funniest thing I've heard all day! (I'd
share the first funniest thing, but it's WAY the shmec off topic.)

[snippage]
> I'm currently trying to de-anglicise Ok, another list inspired
activity.
> Ok, for anyone who has looked at it, certainly doesn't look like
English
> but, it translates word for word and I've decided to change that.
   Always an admirable task...

> to whit: the immediate future tense. An action that hasn't happened
yet
> but is at the point of being performed right now.
>
> And possibly also: the habitual future. An action That will be
performed
> habitually in the future.
   Yep. Enamyn has the habitual in all tenses. Err, actually, that's
not technically accurate, since _tense_ is indicated by the noun, I
should say that the habitual can be used with a noun of any tense.
(Nouns indicate case and tense, verbs indicate aspect and mood.)
   As for immediacy: there are a couple of auxilliary markers that can
indicate immediacy or distance. If they are left out, then it is
assumed that either it doesn't matter (just that it _will happen,
sooner or later) or that the event will occur not immediately, but not
in the far future. (The same is true for the past.) I'm wondering if I
should have a four or five-way distinction: immediate, in a while/a
while ago, in the past/future, long ago/far from now, (and maybe)
distant past/distant future. I'll have to mull that over. Mull, mull,
mull.

> And BTW, does anyone know how many conlangs there _are_ on this list?
   Conlangs? No. At my last count, however, there were about 240
people subscribed to the list, give or take a couple.
   :Peter
==
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