Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Language Sketch: Yargish Orkish

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Monday, August 19, 2002, 0:44
Quoting Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>:

> Roger Mills wrote: > >Andreas Johansson wrote: > >(snip interesting description. I like.) > > > > >> > PRONOUNS > > >> > > > >> > Yargish pronouns don't have any gender distinctions, nor any > > >> > formal/informal distinctions, which makes for a neat pronoun > > >> > table with forms for three persons, two numbers and four cases > > >> > (again, the locative is only used with postpositions). > > >> > > > >> > - 1st.sg 1st.pl 2nd.sg 2nd.pl 3rd.sg 3rd.pl > > >> > - abs ang nazur zdi naja ach nava > > >> > - erg nga zura zda ja acha va > > >> > - dat ngu zuru zdu ju achu vu > > >> > - loc ngiz zuriz zdiz jayz achiz naviz > > >> > > >>[T.Wier] Can you talk a little more about the suppletion here? > > > > > >As soon as somebody reminds me what "suppletion" means! > > > > Substitution of phonologically unrelated forms in a paradigm > > (usually old synonyms) . [...] Since na- is your plural marker, > > one might have expected some combination of na and ang in the > > lst pl, na/zdi for 2nd pl. etc. The roots -zur, -ja and -va > > are suppletive (apparently). > > Thanks. Yes, they're suppletive. As for Thomas Wier's question, well it's > nothing remarkable for a language to have unrelated forms for I~we, > thou~you, he/she/it~they, is it?
No, not at all unusual. I was just curious what might have lead to that particular pattern. Phaleran, too, has some suppletion in the pronominal system: 1Sg 1PlInc 1PlEx S hwei hwana hwaya A hwei hwana hwaya O aphes aphenas aphéis Dat hwo hwanawo hwaitwo Ben hwâs hwânâs hwais ... Phaleran also has suppletive pairs of words for singular and plural nouns: selkh'oru / haili 'cow(s)' aiathi / essom 'stone(s)' kwâ / surra 'ward(s)' ========================================================================= Thomas Wier Dept. of Linguistics "Nihil magis praestandum est quam ne pecorum ritu University of Chicago sequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua 1010 E. 59th Street eundum est, sed qua itur." -- Seneca Chicago, IL 60637