Re: Ayeri: Menan Coyalayamoena ena McGuffey

On Apr 6, 2005 2:17 AM, Carsten Becker <naranoieati@...> wrote:


> I wonder how such
> a primer for Ayeri first-graders would look like if there
> are no short, easy words. Maybe using a simplified, more
> colloquial language? I don't know if it would be a too big
> change to put all the case markers in front of an NP
> instead and making the personal endings (plus case marker)
> single words so that verbs are not conjugated anymore.
> Maybe even drop double syllables where they are not the
> product of grammatical reduplication? I think it would
> simplify the structure a lot, though, except dropping
> syllables. Langs often search for the most simple way to
> express something as it seems, there wouldn't be
> 'watered-down' everyday language otherwise -- *IMHO*.
True. Think about our own native languages and the shortcuts people
use when speaking it.

What I present for Ayhan is the formal language. Colloquially, they
might tend to drop the animacy/inanimacy, natural/unnaturalness
affixes (but i'd not gotte that far). I can't really shorten the
derived nouns though. However, that really doesn't shorten things, it
just makes using the verbs easier. But, I like the verbs with the
special affixes, because it makes them trickier to use and a lot more
interesting.