Re: THEORY: irregular conlangs

R. Nierse wrote:
>
> I sent this to Ed directly, but it was meant for the list as well, so here
> it is:
>
> > Van: Ed Heil <edheil@...>
> > Aan: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
> > Onderwerp: Re: irregular conlangs
> > Datum: zaterdag 2 oktober 1999 15:24
> >
> > BTW, they do have mandatory possessives (you must always say "shima,
> > nima, bima," "my mother, your mother, his/her mother"), but it's just
> > a prefix and it's extremely regular.  They also have different words
> > for, say, "father," depending on whether you're talking about a male's
> > father or a female's father.
>
> Something like this also occurs in Isthmus Zapotec:
> biza?na Pedru   'Pedro's sister'
> biza?na Maria   'Maria's brother'
> benda Maria     'Maria's sister'
> biza?na-be      'his sister / her brother'
>
> So how to say 'Pedro's brother?'
>
        Benda Pedru?

> Palantla Chinantec has different sets of numbers, depending on the counted
> word(s) being animate or inanimate:
> animate         inanimate
> 1. ha           kkw
> 2. o            tu
> 3. z          ?now
>
> -> tu Nim 'two metal objects'
> z zoy 'three dogs'
>
> I think of incorporating somthing like this in Gbwl` too.
>
        The accents disappeared again :) (I hate that! At least in France the
accents stayed in place. But I can read them, it's when I reply that
they disappear).

> I heard of Javanese having different words for people with a higher degree
> of social status. Anyone knows something more about that?
        I think Japanese has also this feature, to a certain extent. I know at
least that some things are named differently depending of the degree of
politeness, or the sex of the speaker and/or listener, etc...

--
        Christophe