Re: DOS (was Re: Re Robot); conlangs with LOTS of cases

Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
> >
> > No, it is Denial Of Service.
> >
> LOL! Never heard that one before!.
Actually, "Denial of Service" is a tech term in computer security, and
it is actually abbreviated DoS.  A "denial of service" attack is one
that harrasses a server until it shuts down: it denies its service (even
to legitimate clients).
However, I feel that it is a fitting expansion of DOS (in the sense of
MS-DOS) as well, as this "operating system" denies almost all services
one expects to get from an OS.

> > ObConlang:
> >
> > What is the largest number of cases you ever built into one of your
> > languages?
> > Or the largest number of cases you ever heard of being used in any
> > language, natural or constructed?
> >
> > I once made a brain-storming to invent as many cases as I could come up
> > with, and found some 60 or so; most of them, however, were local cases
> > built by the means of an NEC-style "case construction kit".  (North-east
> > Caucasian languages tend to have quite many local cases, marked with
> > bimorphemic suffixes composed of one suffix picked from an "in, above,
> > below, near, ..." series and one from an "to, from, at, around, ..."
> > series.)
> >
> > I haven't yet built a conlang using all those cases, though.  But I feel
> > that I'll just *have to* one day!
> >
>
> Ajuk, in it's very first incarnation, had 22, most of them being local
> cases, as in your case. I toned it down to seven very quickly. 60 seems
> like a very high number.
I never came to actually invent morphemes to encode all those cases, but
it could of course be done with little problem.

If you want to see my list, here it is (snipped from a file prepared for
the Web, but never launched).  The list begins with...

*----snip----*

The Finnish case system

   So you want to know what those 15 cases of Finnish are. Well, here
   they are:
    1. Nominative.
    2. Genitive.
    3. Accusative.
    4. Partitive: expresses that only a part of the thing is meant. For
       example, in an expression such as a drop of water, the word water
       takes the partitive case. The partitive case is also used with
       negated verbs, conditionals, and in several other contexts.
    5. Essive: site or time of action, or state of something.
    6. Adessive: a general locative refering to `at-ness'.
    7. Inessive: This is also a locative, but it explicitly states that
       something is actually within something else.
    8. Allative: direction towards something.
    9. Ablative: direction away from something; also used for the domain
       of seeking or finding, for a cause of hindrance, or the subject
of
       a verb expressing loss or deficiency.
   10. Elative: direction out of something.
   11. Illative: direction into something.
   12. Comitative: close relation, such as companyship or possession.
   13. Translative: change of state.
   14. Instrumental: manner or means of an action.
   15. Abessive: absence.

And even more cases!

   But you can come up with a language which has even more cases than
   Finnish. I have read somewhere that Hungarian (which is related to
   Finnish) has 23 cases. Unfortunately, I haven't found a list of the
   Hungarian cases, but never mind - here are even more. You might have
   noticed that some of the Finnish cases still have quite a number of
   different uses, and when seeing such a list, one gets lots of ideas
of
   further possible subdivisions.

   First, the locative, allative and ablative cases can be broken up
even
   further. Thus, we get the following locatives (case names marked with
   an asterisk are, as in all the following lists, my own coinages):

[Some of the asterisked terms I have meanwhile found elsewhere,
sometimes even    referring to the same cases (e.g. superessive).  And
some others also exist out there, I guess.  So better ignore the
asterisks.]

    1. Adessive: at something.
    2. Inessive: within something.
    3. Superessive*: on/above something.
    4. Subessive*: under/below something.
    5. Cisessive*: before something.
    6. Transessive*: behind something.
    7. Interessive*: between something.
    8. Propteressive*: near something.

   The corresponding allatives are:

    1. Allative: movement towards something.
    2. Illative: movement into something.
    3. Ascensive*: movement upto something.
    4. Delative*: movement below something.
    5. Antelative*: movement to before something.
    6. Postlative*: movement to behind something.
    7. Interlative*: movement to between something.
    8. Propterlative*: movement to near something.

   And the ablatives:

    1. Ablative: movement away from something.
    2. Elative: movement out of something.
    3. Desuperlative*: movement from above something.
    4. Desublative*: movement from below something.
    5. Excislative*: movement from before something.
    6. Extranslative*: movement from behind something.
    7. Exterlative*: movement from between something.
    8. Expropterlative*: movement from near something.

   But there are lots, lots more one can think of. Here are some, in no
   particular order:

     * Vocative: entity being called or addressed. Well known from Latin
       and several other languages.
     * Impeditive*: cause of hindrance.
     * Possessive: actual possession. Dyirbal has this, and so does
       Quenya.
     * Defective*: subject of verb expressing loss or deficiency.
     * Prospective*: domain of searching or finding.
     * Temporal*: time of action.
     * Causal: cause of action or situation. Exists in Quechua.
     * Negational*: subject of a negative sentence.
     * Venerative*: object of worship or deference.
     * Contemptive*: object of contempt.
     * Prolative: by way of.
     * Initiative*: beginning of something.
     * Terminative: end of something. Found in Tibetan.
     * Agentive: agent or actor in passive sentences.
     * Simulative: likeness. This case exists in Hawaiian.
     * Purposive: purpose of action. This exists in Quechua.
     * Benefactive: entity for the benefit of which something happens.
       Occurs for example in Hawaiian.
     * Malefactive*: entity for the harm of which something happens.
     * Reflexive*: spares the reflexive pronoun by labeling the noun as
       being both subject and direct object.
     * Prepositional: This case exists in Russian for use with certain
       preposition. You don't need it if you are dead serious to have as
       many cases in your cases in your languages as possible, because
       you will eventually reach the point where prepositions become
       completely redundant and you can eliminate them from your
       language.

   If you add all the cases from these lists to the 15 cases of Finnish,
   eliminating doubles (six of the 21 locational/directional cases are
   also in Finnish), you get as many as 53 cases! And you will probably
   still find a few more... but remember to wear your asbestos longjohns
   - you will probably get some inflammatory comment from people who
will
   tell you that you must be pulling their legs (and God beware of those
   unruly auxlangers who mistake every design of a fictional language
for
   yet another international auxiliary language proposal and blast away
   at it on the ground of their misconception - and they will
escpecially
   blast yours: most auxlangers don't like cases).

*---- snap ----*

So it's a few less than 60, but nevermind.  And it does not even include
the famous mysterious Respective case of Quenya.

You can easily see from the list that I *like* cases, otherwise I
wouldn't have collected so many of them.  (The only reason why Nur-ellen
has so few cases, namely two, is that I wanted it to be a plausible
descendant of Sindarin.)

Jörg.