Re: Tasratal: sketch: connectives (long)

On Saturday, November 24, 2001, at 02:02 , SuomenkieliMaa wrote:

> --- Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> wrote:
>> SuomenkieliMaa wrote:
>>> --- Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> wrote:
>>> Nice little feature, also like Korean _anmida_
>> i
>> You mean _amnida_?  :-)  (Er...I hope that's right.
>
> Yes, you're right... and I'm sorry for taking about
> 2-3 weeks to finally reply...  :/
>
<G>  No hurry, and no problem.

>>> then?  Hmm, but nai somehow makes me think the
>>> negative "I'm not Yoon" (probably because it is
>> the
>>> negative in Jpn!)...  BTW, is this always used for
>> any
>>>
>> Yeah--I hadn't thought of the Japanese negative, but
>> you're right.  (Then
>> again, I know very little Japanese.)
>
> Then from where did you conjure up nai?  Or was it
> just that you found it appealing?
>
It sounded pretty...<looking around guiltily>  I knew the -masen negative
at the time I devised that, not the -nai.

>> "Yoon-en" would be something like "I'm Yoon."
>> "Yoon-nai" would be
>> something like "There is a Yoon."  The main
>
> LOL!  There is a Yoon... that's adorable  :D
> So, like in this case on the list here, we've got
> several Matts... if I want to say that "I'm a Matt
> from the list" then I'd use nai then?
>
Yes.  :-)  OC I haven't a word for "list" yet, but I'll worry about that
later...

>> difference between the two is
>> that you could say "Yoon unicorn-en"--Yoon is a
>> unicorn (but unicorns, at
>> least to my knowledge, don't exist).  You couldn't
>> say "Yoon unicorn-nai"
>> because that makes an additional statement about
>> existence that isn't
>> there with the "en" copula.  Does that make any
>> sense?
>
> Think so... en acts like a linking verb, whereas nai
> has an additional underlying connotation that there is
> an amount of (s.o.) existing.  Right?
>
Yes!  :-)

>> figured out registers of
>> speech in Tasratal; for the moment they don't exist.
>>  One meep at a time..
>
> Nor in Vyh!  The Enclave (ie, Vya:a:hn People) don't
> mind, though, for the time being.  :)
>
<laugh>  Yeah...my confolk tend to be very, *very* forgiving.

>>> can do somethiing like that in Vyh with my
>> honorific
>>> _hy'yy_ used in conjunction with negativizor _ox_.
>>>
>> Thank you.  :-)  What does _hy'yy_ by itself usually
>> signify?
>
> Just an honorific indicator, like Jpn "go" or "o".
> I'd guess Korean has something similar, though I
> cannot say what it may be.  _hy'yy_ is derived from
> _hyyva:_ (good), and in some cases it may turn itself
> into _yy_ (again, like Jpn "go" or "o" honorifics).
> Most of the time, it is to indicate honor/respect upon
> the word it is attached to -- that could be a person
> or an object even; it can, however, be used to
> condescend or show sarcasm.
>
As in o-cha or o-genki or go-chisoosama?  (I'm especially iffy about the
last example).  Hmm.  I can't think of a Korean analogue offhand.  Most of
the honorific-ing seems to either go on in separate vocabulary items
(chapsida vs. muksida for "to eat" depending on status) or get tacked onto
the poor verb.  I could be wrong, though....

>> Thanks!  Your comments are really helpful, too; they
>> force me to clarify
>> what the heck is going on with the language.  :-)
>> Doomo arigatoo!
>
> Well, unfortunately, I could only go as far as above.
> Not much of a true linguist yet!  Dou-itashimashite
> (cho-maneyo).
:-)  'Sokay, I'm not a true linguist either.  Let us bootstrap from each
other's shoulders...<G>

Yoon Ha Lee [requiescat@cityofveils.com]
http://pegasus.cityofveils.com

Entropy isn't what it used to be.

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