Re: Vocalic Language, take two

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Very Interesting.  Nouns interest me far more than verbs, btw (in any conlanging
exercise).  IMO gender systems reflect more about a (con)culture than any other
purely linguistic feature (ie without going into things like idiom).  I'd guess
that these people are hunter-gatherers, or possibly in some other scenario where
food is harder to come by that in the modern world?

I'm seeing a few mentions of "trial" number around and abouts.  Is this a
feature in many natlangs?





Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> on 09/19/99 06:54:35 PM

Please respond to Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>

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Subject:  Vocalic Language, take two



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NOUNS

Gender
Sentient being: =E4-
Supernatural phenomena: nhe-
Natural phenomena: mhoe-
Social groups, phenomena: le-
Edible Animals: ngime-
Non-edible Animals: me-
Edible Plants: ngit=E4-
Other: t=E4-

Case
Nominative: --
Absolutive: a-
Dat/Alienable poss: =E8na-
Inalienable poss: ifa-
Instrumental: yny-
Locative: ka-

Number
Singular: --
Dual: -no (final -y becomes -u)
Trial: -ly (final -y becomes -u)
Plural: -nai (final -y becomes -u)
  It seems that there was once an -y- with these suffixes; incidentally=
,
the words for "two", "three", and "many" are no, ly, and nai.  My theor=
y
is that there was once a plural suffix -y to which these words were
added, and the -y was then lost, but still shows up in the y+y
transformation

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