Re: How naturalistic is this? Colors & Composition in Sein'

Shreyas wrote:
<<
But there's a closed set of materials that are marked in a special
way; the head takes an infix that denotes the category of material,
and the modifier indicates the specific material, like so:
 >>

Umm...do you mean suffix?

Examples:
<<
rómo
sword

rómot lédh
sword-METAL black
"iron sword"

rómot tháya
sword-METAL red
"copper sword"

rómonh fála
sword-WOOD white
"ivory/bone sword"

rómonh sádha
sword-WOOD yellow
"birchwood sword"

Is this totally weird? Do natlangs do stuff like that?
 >>

I'd say that it's common for a natlang to have "red + metal = copper",
etc.  This specific instantiation, though, I'd wager doesn't occur in
any natural language.  I think a linguist might want to say that the
/-t/ and /-nh/ suffixes are clitics, so that the adjectives could then
modify them.  But, then again, they could just as easily be derivational
suffixes.  In either case, I think no natural language would do it.
Very neat!

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

Replies