Thanks! -- also, Classes and Cases.

Jan wrote:
>
>  --- Paul Edson <conlang@...> wrote: > >
> Introduction first: I’m a strange mongrel mix… I do
> > project
> > management for a US Navy document management system
> > during
> > the day (as a contractor) and sing professionally
> > (chorus
> > and small roles) with the Washington Opera by night.
>
> Welcome! You probably noticed already, that there are
> quite a few musicians on the list.
> Just curious, where will you find the time for
> conlanging and follow the list? ;)
Heh. Well, it seems a good deal of my time at work is spent
waiting for people to call or e-mail me... that gives me
time to read the list. The actual con-x-ing (lang, culture,
etc...) tends to happen late at night--I am a notorious
insomniac.

Thanks to everyone who responded! The approaches are as
different as the people offering them, and I found something
to inspire or focus me in most of them. Right now I'm
working on the assumption that my as-yet-nameless language
will have:

--*Heavily* inflected grammar. (Cases for nouns; all sorts
of verb marking--mood, aspect, tense...)
--Noun class system. (Been intrigued by this for a
while--shooting for about 15-18 classes, a few of which will
be vestigial holdovers from a ConHistorically earlier form
of the language.)
--Relatively simple phonology. (This is my first language,
and I don't particularly want to learn 'new' sounds in order
to speak in it...)
--A syllabary script.
--A high degree of conservativeness... this will be a
"classical" form that has survived essentially intact for
thousands of years in the midst of a thriving
crossroads/agora setting. (There are reasons for this, which
can be explained culturally.) There will thus be a tension
between the "official" language and the day-to-day patois
which will likely contain significant numbers of borrowings
and influences from other languages.

The Question:

Is it unusual in NatLangs to have a language with a noun
class system that also marks a high number of noun cases?
Are there good examples of languages which do both, either
Nat- or Con-?

Thanks,

Paul.

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