>From: Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
>Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 10:14:55 -0500
>
<snip inspiration>
>Trentish does this.
>
>There are six forms for number:
>
> (zero) nomic ("Mice" are eating my rice)
> (zero)/s'V- singular ("a mouse" is eating it)
> me- paucal aggregate ("a few mice" are in the corner)
> el- paucal disperse ("a few mice" are in the house)
> ?lume- plural aggregate ("many mice" are in the corner)
> ?lel- plural disperse ("many mice" are in the house)
>
>so:
>
> Trentish Roughly English
> tKiki- "mice in general"
> stKiki- "a mouse"
> metKiki- "a small group of mice"
> eng'tKiki- "a few mice"
> ?lumetKiki- "a lot of mice"
> ?leng'tKiki- "many mice"
>
>
> *Muke!
This puts me in mind of Klingon's -pu'/-Du'/-mey distinction. For beings
capable of landuage use -pu'. For body parts use -Du'. For all other
things use -mey. However, -mey can be applied to body parts or even
language-using beings in which case it carries the added meaning "scattered
all over the place". So tlInganpu' = Klingons. tlInganmey = Klingons
scattered everywhere. QuchDu' = foreheads. Quchmey = foreheads scattered
all over.
Adamv
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