Re: Inclusive or exclusive?

Jörg wrote:
<<
_mi_ 'I'    _mipela_   'we (excl.)'
             _yumipela_ 'we (incl.)'
_yu_ 'thou' _yupela_   'you (pl.)'

(Correct me if I'm wrong.)
 >>

It's slightly more interesting, but that's the basic idea:

Singular:
1) mi
2) yu

Dual:
1ex.) mitupela
1inc.) yumi
2) yutupela

Trial
1ex.) mitripela
1inc.) yumi(tri?)pela
2) yutripela

Plural
1ex.) mipela
1inc.) yumipela
2) yupela

A note in my grammar suggests that numbers larger than three
can be used.  This, actually, would make it more like something
like weeks in ASL.  Weeks are fascinating, incidentally.  The word
for "week" actually means "one week (neutral time)".  You put
your off hand in neutral space, palm facing you, then put your
dominant hand in the [G] shape and move it behind your palm
from the back of the palm to the tip of the fingers (like your off
hand is a slate that you're wiping clean with your dominant hand--
but with your index finger pointing straight up [like a number 1]).

That's the basic sign.  At this point, though, you can change it up.
With one hand, you can sign any number from 1 to infinity, pretty
much.  So if you want the sign to mean "two weeks (neutral time)",
you just change you handshape to the [V] handshape (a number
2) and do the same sign.  Ditto with three weeks, four weeks, five
weeks, fifty weeks...

Then you can add another wrinkle.  If after your dominant hand
passes the tips of the fingers of your off hand you pull your
dominant hand backwards towards you, that means "ago", or "in
the past".  If you move it forwards away from you, that means
"in the future".  So if you make a number 2, swipe it across your
off palm, and them move your dominant hand out and away
from you, that means "two weeks from now"--one sign.  With a
three, and pulling your dominant hand backwards, that's "three
weeks ago".  Isn't that cool!

There are a couple other signs that can do similar things like this,
but that's the one that comes to mind, and if what the grammar
I have says about Tok Pisin is true, then it's a very similar
phenomenon.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/