Re: mandatory possession in Chasma"o"cho

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> "Grandsire, C.A." wrote:
> > NOTE 2: When used with an adjective that follows the noun, the adjective
> > must also carry the same possessive suffix as the noun, as a kind of
> > "agreement in possession". So 'my woodlike ear' (silly example, but I
> > can't find another adjective right now) is:
> > 'hec roesze"u"thac' /h'Ek ROjs'2T@k/ or
> > 'hetarc roesze"u"thutarc' /het'aRk ROjs'2T@t@Rk/
>
> Groovy, I was thinking of using something like that in Watakassi'.
> Possessive suffixes are used with inalienable possession, but are not
> mandatory, and are placed before case and number suffixes, so "my
> mothers (ergative)" is _tinnani'kwail_ = tin-nani'-kwa-i-l =
> Female.plural-mother-my-plural-erg (mother is often used metaphorically
> for ancestresses), while "my houses (ergative)" is _pifsani'lil-kwa_ =
> pif-sani'-li-l=kwa = Gender7.plural-house-plural-ergative=my.  When
> added as inalienable possession, it is pronounced with the high tone
> from the word, but when not, is in low tone.
>
> Anyhoo, I was thinking of making it "agree" when inalienable, so "my old
> mother" would be:
> tinani'kwa titika'kwa = ti-nani'-kwa ti-tika'-kwa = female-mother-my
> female-old-my
> But "my old house" would be:
> pisani'-kwa pitika' = Gender.7-house=my Gender.7-old
>
        That is nearly exactly how it works in Chasma"o"cho, except that for
not-mnadatorily possessed nouns, when the adjective is after the noun
the possessive suffix is put on the adjective, not on the noun (in fact,
I borrowed that from the behaviour of the article in Basque and I
extended it for all definite suffixes).

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        Christophe Grandsire

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