CHAT: Unconventional pronoun systems show us yours!
From: | Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> |
Date: | Sunday, September 12, 2004, 19:25 |
Hmm, spoke too soon--- in answer to Wesley Parish I wrote:
> That's delicious. I can see a need for such a pronoun in Old Kash, and
> perhaps still in related languages spoken in countries where class
> distinctions are more rigorously observed than in Holunda. While royalty
> and
> the peerage don't socialize a lot with the lower orders, it's quite
> possible
> that one might have a lover or f*ck-buddy of lesser status...(etc.)...
> (Adds to To-do List--- hmm, nom. _tis_,
That has to be _tisa_; I discovered that "tis" already exists, as an
affective word for "tickle". No doubt an amusing connection, but hardly
appropriate.........(other forms remain as given in the original email, just
in case you wondered)
>The word is related to _sisa_ 'love'.
> But we still need a lower-to-higher pronoun for non-sexual
> relationships...)
That will be: prakambi, contracted from pra+kambra+mi HON-friend-my, but now
monomorphemic, i.e. the genitive is prakambiyi, dat. prakambiye, acc.
prakambin; plural prakambila etc.; takes a verb in the 3d person of course.
Both forms all but dead in Holundan Kash--the oldest/most fuddy-duddy
aristos are always pleasantly surprised when someone uses prakambi; their
children/grandchildren couldn't care less... tisa is still used but
nowadays almost always with humor or irony on both sides, esp. in the
diminutive form _tiçi(mi)_ (rare gen. tiçí, dat. tiçé), acc. tiçin ~cin
(cimbi).
The only title in general use is: karumbi = karun+mi 'my lord' when
addressing the karun (the ruler, "duke" more or less), and it too has become
monomorphemic