Voices in the Night (was: Re: Phaleran update )

On Wed, 31 May 2000 11:52:11 -0500 Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
writes:
> When I get around to working on verbal voice, I'll probably have all
> derived O's in the dative case for antipassives.  I'm thinking about
> having four voices:  active, passive, antipassive, and reflexive.
> (and no,
> I'm not entirely sure how it'll have passive and antipassive both --
> I read
> that Mam, a Mayan language, has that and just thought it was cool and
> had to have it for Phaleran).   What other verbal voices do the rest
> of y'all have?
> ===========================================
> Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
> "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
> ===========================================
-

Well, Rokbeigalmki just has four voices: simple/reflexive, causative,
passive, and causative-passive.
The causative forms prefix _da_ /da/ , from _dal_ "give".
The passive forms suffix _-ad_ /?ad/ , from _had_ "recieve".

For example:
MANOI = eat
DAMANOI = feed
MANOI-AD = be eaten
DAMANOI-AD = be feed (to)

Stíígiyus ozuzoi-MANOI (sha')yagulm.  =  Stygius ate* fish.
*it's actually in the past-routine compound tense....he ate fish
routinely, like Spanish "comía" not "comió".

Stíígiyus oza-DAMANOI (wa')yagulm-a.  =  Stygius is feeding* the fish.
*actually the present-immediate tense (which is not compound, there's no
simple present), not a progressive.

Ghoumfes-a uzazii-MANOI-AD ya'yagulm-a.  =  The wheat will soon be eaten*
by the fish.
*specifically the immediate-future tense, as opposed to the
future-immediate ('at some point in the future will be being eaten').

Ghoumfes-a uzoi-DAMANOI-AD wa'yagulm-a ya'Stíígiyus.  =  The wheat is
fed* to the fish by Stygius.
*it's the present-routine tense.


Intransitive verbs can have specific connotations in the simple/reflexive
vs. the passive:

Izu-GAHEIS-AD.  =  She became older. (grew up)
Izu-GAHEIS.  =  She became an elder.

Amzii-PLEK.  =  We fell.
Amzii-PLEK-AD.  =  We fell (and it wasn't our fault).
Amzii-DAPLEK.  =  We felled (=made someone else fall).
Amzii-DAPLEK-AD =  We were felled (=someone else made us fall).


Interestingly, the verb _plek_ comes from _pleknu gamna-zoh_ /'plEknu
'gamn@ zA/ ([A] = low back rounded), the only existant example of a
conlang "Mother Language" that was part of a short story i started
writing in my sophomore year of highschool but never finished because it
became too long for a short story (about 10 pages when i stopped), it's
the name of the alien race that started a millennia-long secret war
between the Humans and Daemons /'dejm@nz/ (another hominid species) at an
incident known as The Great Betrayal that no one really remembered what
exactly happened at.  The alien race's own name for themselves is
unknown, but in the Mother Language (the original language of both Humans
and Daemons) they were referred to as _pleknu gamna-zoh_, "Those Who Fell
From Stars".


-Stephen (Steg)
 "holy mackerels put the theology back in ichthyology."