Re: Future English

On Saturday 18 January 2003 9:26 pm, Doug Dee wrote:
> There was a thread touching on the future evolution of English, but I've
> lost track of which one it was.
>
> Anyway, I just wanted to suggest that persons interested in that area of
> conlanging should look for _The Dune Encyclopedia_, which has an article on
> "Galach," an English-based language of the far future.
>
> There are complicated noun declensions formed by the suffixation of
> pronouns and prefixation of prepositions.
>
> E.g., the "accompanitive" case of the word for "boy" is "gwibwihim" from
> with+boy+him.
>
>
> Doug
Plausible, I suppose. Accompanitive looks a somwhat strange name, though.
Comitative is the normal term, I believe.  If I was going to make up a prefix
for that, I'd say 'with the boy', would be [wIvOi], |wivoi|. 'with the cat',
[wIG&t], |wighæt|, and 'with the dog' [wIDOg], |widhog|.  In case you can't
tell, the prefix |wi-| is applied, and any stop is turned into a voiced
fricative.  Fricatives are voiced, and voiced fricatives are left alone.  If
the word has an initial vowel, the prefix is |wiv-|.

ie.

kæt 'cat' -> wighæt
dog 'dog' -> widhog
boi 'boy' -> wivoi
thing 'thing' -> widhing
ænimæl 'animal' -> wivænimæl

Of course, that is ignoring phonological changes in the intervening time...