Re: Compounding

At 02:41 PM 1/20/02 +0100, Christian Thalmann wrote:
>So I made up the following excuse: Old Obrenje used to have cases and
>numeri, allowing for pretty arbitrary adjective sequences in a noun
>phrase.  The compounds like <sampros> were created at this stage.
>Later, Obrenje lost case inflections and adopted a strict head-first
>syntax, but didn't change the established compound words.  Thus, a
>modern speaker of Obrenje will use a regular head-first noun phrase
>where no established compound words are available (e.g. <tsan laj>),
>but may also create new compound words in direct analogy to already
>established ones, (e.g. <kjobaja> "head of hair" from <kjobe> "single
>hair", or <ingwaja> "choir" from <ingo> "voice").
>
>Does that make sense from a linguistic point of view?  I know it's a
>bit forced, but modern Romance languages also mostly have head-first
>syntax, although Latin used to be much more liberal.
>
>Opinions, anyone?
    I think your "excuse" sounds completely reasonable, and will give your
language vitality.  It makes for a good set of multiple rules for
irregularities.  :-]

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