Re: Degrees of comparation

----- Original Message -----
From: Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>

> >From: Sally Caves <scaves@...>
> >ALTERATIVE:
> >zef uor androfaiht
> >         "a man 'differently' handsome.
> >ta der uor androfaiht zef-li
> >         "A man handsome in a different way from him."
>
> Wow, Sally, I really love this concept of "differently expressing the same
> quality".  Why doesn't ENGLISH do cool things like that?
Thank you!   I guess it's why we invent conlangs!
Someone wrote to me, I've forgotten who, and said she was
looking for a conlang that thought in tertiary instead of binary
form.  Teonaht is still pretty binary (good, bad; strong, weak)
and I was wondering how to address that.

We have yes, no, maybe; good, bad, indifferent.  But with
the alterative, you can say:  good, bad, otherly good, and
otherly bad.  Male, female, otherly male, otherly female.
Strong, weak, otherly strong, otherly weak.  I suppose it
corresponds roughly to English "differently abled."  But
this is such a concoction.  If I introduce "uor" into Teonaht's
grammar, it could express a range of meaning right from the
start.  It will probably mean some things with some adjectives,
and other things with others.  I was thinking, what would
swift, swifter, swiftest, and otherly swift--uor nimra--mean?
Either one races and reaches the goal or one doesn't.  The
tortoise is otherly swift than the hare!


> This grammatical
> feature could be used to great effect in poetry and Congressional floor
> bickerings I would imagine.  And imagine the new ways it wouold provide
for
> hedging on an answer when you don't want to lie, but don't want to offend
> someone either. . .  Fraught with possibilties.
He's... otherly correct!

Sal

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