Local cases - lots of them (was Re: Conlang book)

Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...> writes:

> Hm what about this: A lang where the only difference between the following
> sentences 'd be the case inflextion on the wrod for "wall":
>
> He walks to the wall (and stops there).
> He walks into (the inside of) the wall.
> He walks from the wall.
> He walks out from inside the wall.
> He walks inside the wall.
> He walks through the wall.
>
> Is there any natlang with sufficient cases for this?
Daghestanian (North East Caucasian) languages.  AFAIK, they have systems
in which local cases are formed by attaching two phonemes to the noun,
one from an "at", "in", "over", "under", "near", etc. series and one
from a "to", "at", "from", "through", etc. series.

So, the example would look like this (AFAIK, those languages are
ergative and SOV):

He-ABS wall-AT-TO walks.
He-ABS wall-IN-TO walks.
He-ABS wall-AT-FROM walks.
He-ABS wall-IN-FROM walks.
He-ABS wall-IN-AT walks.
He-ABS wall-IN-THROUGH walks.

(Perhaps the sequence of the morphemes is the other way 'round.)

> Obviously, our theoretical lang should also have cases for near the wall,
> behind the wall, in front of the wall, beside the wall, above the wall and
> under the wall. That'd make a grand total of twelve cases so far.
The details differ between different Daghestanian languages, but it
wouldn't surprise me if there is an example for each in one or the other
of them.

Certainly, I MUST use that kind of system in a conlang one day!

Jörg.