Re: Future English

On 9 Feb 2005, at 9.06 am, Rob Haden wrote:

> On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 17:00:49 +1100, Tristan McLeay
> <conlang@...> wrote:
>
>>> I think it likely that that pronoun will become a postclitic verbal
>>> marker for transitivity.
>>
>> I think it sensible to avoid the word 'likely'.
>
> Why's that?  It's already happened in some creoles, e.g. Tagalog.
I didn't mean in that specific case; I meant in general. We're
predicting the future with very little basis.

...

>> unstressed syllables might change. I thus suggest:
>>
>> Me take 'em.
>> Me take.
>
> It's just my preference to have a more phonemic/phonetic orthography.
> :)
I would prefer to use the current orthography, but change the
grammar/pronunciation around myself :) Maybe I'll do it, creating a
language complimentary to your future English (Which I spose really
should be Fyutxo Inlix, shouldn't it, so I can call mine Future
English? :)

>> If you feel so inclined, you can suggest the IPA pronunciation: /mi
>> "tekIm/, you seem to imply.
>
> Actually, I posit that stress would always be on the initial syllable
> and
> would be rather weaker than that of current English.  So, |mitekim|
> = /mitekim/ = ['mi.t_he.k_hIm].
Yeah, I hadn't read the next message yet..

> I didn't say that you suggested such things.  I suggested them. :)
> While
> one can say "my own head" as easily as "my own cat", it seems like the
> related verb "own" implies alienable possession.
But I think seeing as 'own' in the context of possession is actually an
emphasiser, if either's going to mean inalienable possession, it'd be
'me-own' i.e. the emphatic form.

> Women wouldn't be turned into inanimates.  They'd be part of the
> animates.
Well, then they'd turn into men, which they'd object to at least as
hard!

> However, in colloquial English, some inanimate objects are referred to
> in
> the 3rd-person feminine.  So there isn't a complete lack of basis for
> such
> a development.
It is pretty damn rare though...

>> Leaving that aside, I don't see it happening anyway, at least, there's
>> no indication of it happening already... Perhaps a French-style 'Me, I
>> went to the park', or 'Jack and Fred, they went outside' (which happen
>> sometimes in English, but not religiously yet), but that's the closest
>> in the current system I can get to any sign of nominal indication via
>> inflexion on the verb.
>
> These are just my own thoughts.
I know, I was just giving my own thoughts on your own thoughts.

--
Tristan.