Comments on Chleweyish-JimG

JimG -- About the name of your language:    It starts with a non-English
consonant cluster.    Why not anglicize it fully, since you already have a
purely native name?

Fonno chleweye /'fOno 'xlju:ij@/, as known in Chleweyish will be loosely
based
on the grammar of Colombian Signed Language.


JimG --  I assume you're referrring to aspects of the language other than
phonology.

Nouns can take a plural ending -(e)n, or a singular ending -(e)c...
uninflected
will usually mean singular if the context does not clarify.


JimG -- You'll need to tell us when to use marked singular and when to use
unmarked singular.

Verbs will inflect after mode.  I have not yet decide how many modes will
Chleweyish have.  I have yet decided for imperative (usually uninflected),
indicative (usually adds -e), and a yet unamed mode wich implies that the
fact
is not real (or probably not), but is not quite the subjunctive; this mode
usually ends in -el.  Infinitives end in -i.


JimG -- I think you need to clarify your quasi-subjunctive mood:   does it
refer to hypotheses, dreams, imagination, conventions, which among these?

Connectors can function as question word, as adverbs, as conjunctions or as
prepositions.


JimG -- What justifies their classification into a single category?    That
is, how does your syntax allow question-words, adverbs, conjunctions, and
prepositions to behave the same way syntactically?

Particles will alway be infront of the word they modify, they will be
usefull
for mark things like aspect, definitivenes, etc.


JimG -- I can understand fixing the position of particles that mark
definiteness, but why fix the position of particles that mark aspect?    Why
couldn't you move the particles around for stylistic effects?

Basic phrase order is:
(space and time) subject verb (adverbial and mode conectors)


JimG -- This basic sentence structure raises a lot of questions.    What is
the 'space' category?   What specific part of speech specifies "space" and
time?    If the final constituent is a "connector," what constituents does
it connect?    A part of speech that conveys adverbial or modal meaning
doesn't connect things in the same sense that a preposition or conjunction
does.    Do the parentheses identify optional elements?

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If a verb requires more than one argument, word order will be either OSV,
SOV or SVO.

JimG -- Two of your word orders result in diametrically opposite meanings:
OSV & SOV.

You're going to have to clarify which context resolves the possible
ambiguity.   e.g.   When O is inanimate and A is animate.

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Context will usually tell which one is correct, or the expression will be
said in
some other way, like SV "to what?" O or O(pasive)V "by who?" S.


JimG -- Why do your examples have question words?    Also, with OSV and SOV
having potentially opposite meanings, why wouldn't the forms in which O and
S are clearly marked be the "usual" ones?

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Pasive voice would be either marked by a particle (usually "se") or by a
different verb.


JimG -- "By a different verb":   Do you mean that passive voice will be
lexicalized for some verbs?    That is, will some verbs be active only, with
the corresponding passive meaning being expressed by a completely different
verb?   (Nothing wrong with that;   in fact, it makes your language more
exotic.)