Re: introduction...

--- Talpas Tim wrote:
One of the more interesting features of Taiksiri (i feel) is relative marking
on verbs:  for transitive verbs, a different suffix is used depending
on whether the object person (absolutive) is higher, lower, or the same
as the subject (ergative).
--- end of quote ---

Interesting stuff! I don't know of any natlang that has anything like this. There are
plenty of languages out there that have person hierarchies, with either 2
(Algonquian) or 1 (most other languages) on top:

  2     1
  |       |
  1     2
  |       |
  3     3

But Taiksiri seems to have not a person hierarchy, but a person *triangle*:

       1
     /   \
   3 -- 2

The centrifugal form is used when moving one space clockwise on the triangle (1 >
2, 2 > 3, 3 > 1), the centripetal form is used when moving one space
counterclockwise (1 > 3, 3 > 2, 2 > 1), and the stative is used when you stay
in place. Neat.

Matt.

Matthew Pearson
Department of Linguistics
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland, OR 97202
503 771 1112 x 7618