Re: Degrees of comparation

Teonaht also has an equative, "as beautiful as,"
and it is developing what I call an "alterative":
"other beautiful than."  Meaning "beautiful in
a different way."  I wanted Teonaht to be able
to express other than binary oppositions in its
basic grammar.  Do other natlangs have this
concept in the comparative?

ABSOLUTE:
zef androfaiht,
        "comely, handsome man."

EQUATIVE:
zef hdo androfaiht
        "as, so, how handsome a man"
ta der hdo androfaiht zef-li
        "a man as handsome as he."
        (lit: "as him so handsome the man")

COMPARATIVE:
zef mak'androfaiht
        "a handsomer man"
ta der mak'androfaiht zef-li
        "a more handsome man than he"

SUPERLATIVE:
zef hse androfaiht
        "A most handsome man."
om dwe hse androfaiht li zef
        "The handsomest man of them (all)"

NEGATIVE COMPARATIVE:
zef vekr' andofaiht
        "less handsome man."
ta der vekr'androfaiht zef-li,
        "a less handsome man than he"

NEGATIVE SUPERLATIVE:
zef ykhs' androfaiht,
        "least handsome man"
om dwe ykhs' androfaiht zef-li,
        "the least handsome man of them (all)."

ALTERATIVE:
zef uor androfaiht
        "a man 'differently' handsome.
ta der uor androfaiht zef-li
        "A man handsome in a different way from him."


----- Original Message -----
From: Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>


> I recently realized that from an internal POW, it'd make a lot of sense
for
> Tairezazh to have "negative" degrees of comparation, that is inflections
> signifying "less" and "least". So, taking _dair_ "beautiful" as example,
the
> full range of comparation 'd be:
Tairezazh, what a lovely name!  Sounds like something the
Teonim would exclaim over for beauty.

> tshedair    most beautiful
> dadair      more beautiful
> dair        beautiful
> medair      less beautiful
> sizdair     least beautiful
>
> (All to be stressed on the _ai_)
>
> Are there any natlangs with a similar system?
You've made them prefixes, which is nice.  Spanish
and French express these distinctions, as does Teonaht,
in adverbs that precede the adjective:  hermosa, mas
hermosa, menos hermosa,  la menos hermosa, etc.   I
suppose they could easily become prefixual in Teonaht.
English can suffix them:  "prettier, prettiest"--which seems
typical of Germanic languages--as well as revert to the
adverb:  more beautiful, most beautiful, a legacy, perhaps,
from its exposure to French.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html

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