Re: THEORY: irregular conlangs

Ed Heil wrote:

>
> For example, the conjugation of ts'a', "to hear/understand" in the
> present is:
>
>    sing           dual-plural   distributive plural
> 1  diists'a'      diits'a'      dadiits'a'
> 2  dinits'a'      doohts'a'     dadoohts'a'
> 3  yidiits'a'     yidiits'a'    deidiits'a'
> 3a  jidiits'a'     jidiits'a'    dazhdiits'a'
>
> But 'aah, "to learn," is:
>
> bohoosh'aah        bihwiil'aah    bidahwiil'aah
> bohoolh'aah        bohoolh'aah    bidahoolh'aah
> yihoolh'aah        yihoolh'aah    yidahoolh'aah
> bihojiil'h'aah     bihojiilh'aah  bidahojiilh'aah
>
> and "to walk around" is:
>
> naasha   neiit'aash   neiikai
> nanina   naah'aash    naahkai
> naagha   naa'aash     naakai
> njigha   nji'aash     njikai
>
> (Thats one of the ones where the root changes acording to person: a,
> 'aash, or kai.)
Utterly fascinating.  If you were trying to think of the hardest and
weirdest conlang to invent, I don't think you could come up with
anything
stranger than some of our own natlangs.  Unless it was a different word
for every noun in the language depending on whether it was mine, yours,
or his (actually proposed!).  And I think someone came up with a natlang
that actually does that.  That's still a possibility for Teonaht-- in
words of relationship only.  My father, your father, his father, where
"father" in each instance would be a different word.  God, religion,
country, and language could also participate in this variation.

No wonder Navajo was made the code language for the military.

> Now, there are certain more or less predicatble things (like yi and
> ji in 3rd person, sh and n/lh in second person, da in distributive
> plural), but it really just has to be memorized.
Do any verbs repeat?



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