Re: [despammed] Re: Sarah's language.

En réponse à bnathyuw <bnathyuw@...>:

>
> i was thinking of the gen pl, which alternates |-um|
> and |-ium|, generally dividing between the C and i
> stems ( again iirr )
>
You are right, but the alternation is completely predictable by the form of the
noun. Imparisyllabic nouns (nouns with a different number of syllables in the
nominative and genitive singular) will all behave like "consul, consulis".
Parisyllabic nouns (nouns with the same number of syllables in the nominative
and genitive singular) will all behave like "civis, civis". And they both share
exactly the same endings, except that parisyllabic nouns insert a -i- before
the ending of the genitive plural, and, only for neuter nouns, before the
ending of the nominative/accusative plural. IMHO, this is not enough difference
to make them different declensions, especially since the alternation is
completely predictable by the form of the noun (even the nouns which looks
imparisyllabic but are actually parisyllabic are easily predictable. They are
the ones whose root ends in two consonants, like "urbs, uRBis", and the neuter
nouns in -al or -ar, like "animAL, animALis"). Saying that imparisyllabics and
parisyllabics form two different declensions would be like saying that neuter
nouns should belong to separate declensions, because they have a common
nominative/accusative and a different ending in the nominative/accusative
plural. Actually, you would even have more of a point to separate the neuter
nouns from the non-neuter nouns, since neuter nouns are not always recognisable
by shape (at least among the third declension), while parisyllabic nouns always
are.

Don't forget to use Occam's razor whenever necessary ;))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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