Re: Degrees of comparation

Andreas Johansson wrote:
> BTW, what does {ht} in "Teonaht" signify? [xt]?
[T], Sally is backwards.  ;-)  Just kidding, Sally!  :-)

As for comparison, Standard Uatakassí uses *infixes* -tu- for
comparative and -la- for superlative.  The original rule was, the infix
went after the first vowel.  That still generally applies (if you treat
glides as allophones of high vowels, e.g., /kja/ -> /kila:/, but there
are a few complications, for instance, CL becomes CatuL and ClaL,
because those are descended from Common Kassí CëL (ë = /@/).  Another
complication is the regular sound changes /tw/ -> /p/ which turns -tu-
into -p- when added before a vowel (e.g., luá "many" -> lupá "more")

Colloquial Uatakassí has simplified matters by using prefixes
nupaa-/nupak- for comparative and nulaa-/nulaak- for superlatives (the
second of the two forms is used before vowels, glides, and L - the kl
becomes a geminate kk), these are derived from the comparative and
superlative forms of maa-/mak- "very" (historically, nuaa-/nuak-).  The
syllable nu- is sometimes dropped from those prefixes.

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