Re: Newbie says hi

On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 10:26:16AM -0500, Amanda Babcock wrote:
[snip]
> One interesting experiment might be to try to create a language in which
> static conditions (such as "being a bird") acted the way we are accustomed
> to verbs acting, and transitory conditions (such as "flying") acted the way
> we are accustomed to nouns acting.  I'm not sure how useful this is,
> given that traditional verb-related functions such as tense are more useful
> in conjunction with transitory conditions and less so with static
> conditions, but it would be neat to try.  ("A flight is birding"?)
[snip]

Very interesting concept. Ebisedian doesn't quite have that, but it *does*
exhibit a similar feature in its number system.

In Ebisedian, when you want to say, eg., "two men", you don't use two
separate words, but you take the radical form of "men" and attach it to
the quantity noun for "two". In other words, you get a compound literally
meaning "man-like two" or "human two". Similarly, "three horses" becomes
an "equine three".
        _pii'z3di_      "man"
        _3jei'_         "two" (note, this is a plural noun; when we speak
                        of the *mathematical entity* called "two", we use
                        a singular noun _ijei'_. Here, the plural form is
                        a "quantity" noun which does inflect for number.)
        _3pii'z3dojei'_ "two men"

For comparison, _pii'z3docha'ri_ means "(male) human expression" (_cha'ri_
is expression).


T

--
INTEL = Only half of "intelligence".