Re: New Language - Altsag Venchet

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karapcik, Mike" <KarapcM@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 6:54 AM
Subject: Re: New Language - Altsag Venchet


> | -----Original Message-----
> | From: Nik Taylor
> | Subject: Re: New Language - Altsag Venchet
> |
> | Joseph Fatula wrote:
> | > --- Gender ---
> | > Every noun is either animate or inanimate.
> | > Animate nouns are living things,
> | > parts of living things, and other things being
> | > viewed as capable of action.
> | > There are a number of irregulars, of both genders.
> |
> | In most animate-inanimate distinctions, irregular
> | forms are assymetrical, that is, it's common to find
> | inanimate objects in an animate category, but to find
> | an animate in the inanimate category is
> | exceedingly rare.
>
>         In the book "Describing Morphosyntax" (an excellent book for
> conlangers and "armchair linguists"), the author often discusses his own
> field work in the language Panare (I believe a Caribbean language, also
> spelled Panare in a few places). Panare distinguishes between animate and
> inanimate nouns. However, because of some old sound changes and pattern
> over-correction, the words for "rock" and "pineapple" are treated as
people.

None of the nouns have changed in that way yet, though in Silwen Nunáth
(another language I'm working on), there has been some regularizing tendency
when people noticed that many nouns shared a gender and a common vowel
ending.

> | Joseph Fatula wrote:
> | > Objects of prepositions are in the dative case.
> | All prepositions?
>
>         And all the time? Could other cases have special meanings?
> ("Penetration/into", "roughly / in that direction", "...and stops there",
> etc.)
I see what you mean... not a bad idea.  I think I'll use something like
that.  But at the moment, to answer your question, all of the prepositions
make use of the dative case, all the time.

> | Joseph Fatula wrote:
> | > --- Aspect ---
> | > Perfective is for completed actions.  Habitual,
> | > actions repeatedly or
> | > habitually done.  Inceptive means "to begin to
> | > X", cessative "to stop Xing". Medial, "in the
> | > middle of Xing", "while Xing".  Intentional and
> | > unintentional reflect the speaker's intent.
>
>         Some languages (I believe Hopi for one) have a "chaotic
iterative".
> It's for something done repeatedly but not out of volition. The best
example
> is coughing. Coughing just happens to you, and you just do it, but without
a
> pattern or regular period of iteration. I have that in the language I'm
> working on. It may be useful for you as a combination of "habitual" and
> "unintentional".
>
>                 Mike
Well, you can combine any of these endings, and I think habitual and
unintentional would get that same sort of idea across.

Thanks!

Joe Fatula

> ______________________________________
> Mike Karapcik   *       Tampa, FL
> Network Analyst *       USF campus
> H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Research Center
> ConlangCode: v1.1 CIT !h+ !u cG:M:R:S:G a+ y n30:3
> B+++/R:Wic A+ E+ N1 Is/d K ia-:+ p-- s- m o P S----
>
> Ignore the nasty addition below:
>
> ######################################################################
> This transmission may be confidential or protected from disclosure and
> is only for review and use by the intended recipient. Access by
> anyone else is unauthorized. Any unauthorized reader is hereby
> notified that any review, use, dissemination, disclosure or copying of
> this information, or any act or omission taken in reliance on it, is
> prohibited and may be unlawful. If you received this transmission in
> error, please notify the sender immediately.  Thank you.
>
> ######################################################################