Re: Conjunctions

At 11:48 PM 3/16/02 -0500, Matthew Kehrt wrote:
>After reading part of the "Missing Words" thread, this came to mind.  It
>seems that a lot of languages have similar words for conjunctions- mostly
>short, vowel-rich syllables.  I was wondering what your languages use for
>conjunctions.
    I just got done adding an entirely new class of conjunctions, so there
are many.  They fall into three categories: simple conjunctions, negative
conjunctions, and conjunctive negatives.
    The simple conjunctions are 'a/ (and), 'o_ (either-or), 'o^ (and-or),
'u\ (therefore, or so that), and 'i/ (if or because).
    Negative conjunctions are formed by adding the prefix nga\- to a simple
conjunction; their meaning is the opposite of the conjunction.  They
include nga\'a/ (although, however, or despite), nga\'o_ (a complex meaning
in English, meaning that at least one element in the list is false),
nga\'o^ (nor), nga\'u\ (except [that]), and nga\'i/ (unless).
    Conjunctive negatives are formed by applying the conjunction as a
prefix to nga\-; they negate either the last item on the list or each
individual item on the list, depending on the context. They include 'a/nga\
(and not, or instead of, with each item in the list superceding the truth
of the one following), 'o_nga\ (or not; at least one item must be true, and
at least one must be false), 'o^nga\ (and/or not; each item in the list may
be true or not, independent of the truth of any other), 'u\nga\ (therefore
not or so that not; the first item on the list prevents the second, and
each of the others is prevented in turn), and 'i/nga\ (because not; the
falseness of the last item in the list is the cause of all the others).
    I just realized -- that's fifteen fully functional conjunctions.  I
haven't seen anyone else's list, but I'd expect that to be pretty close to
the top....  :-]

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