Re: Language Sketch: Yargish Orkish

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)'

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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