Re: The difficulties of being weirder than English

Amanda Babcock wrote:

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> I guess there's nothing for it but to pursue my ideas for languages
> spoken by aliens with a different psychology :)  So, anybody have any
> ideas what kind of social organization would lead to a language that
> doesn't distinguish between singular and dual, but does distinguish
> between singular/dual and plural? :)  Or, perhaps, agrees with odd vs.
> even numbers? :)
To mingle singular and dual, the number 2 must be very important for this
society, beyond the bilaterality (-ism?) of the body. Maybe their religion
is based on a couple of equal gods, the children are married at birth, the
number of twins is very high, there are 2 moons, there are 2 high mountains
or volcanoes which caused a major event in the past of this society... Maybe
the people worship a plant or a tree for which the "one/two" property is
obvious: twin flowers, twin trunks, twin fruits, etc. Their are many reasons
that can be imagined.

Any way, I think that even if singular and dual are mixed together, there
still must be a way to distinguish them. For example, the common non-plural
article means "a couple of" and if you really want to specify one thing, you
must use an expression like "a half of".

Mathematics become very interesting when you count: zero, half, couple,
couple and half, double couple, double couple and half,... groupe.

Yes, mathematics must be in base 6 or 12... or 4 or 8 or 16... You choose.

To have an agreement on odd vs. even isn't very strange in a society where 2
is so important. And it removes the need for an expression like "a half of";
you just use the common article "couple" but you apply the odd marking.

Pheeeww! Luckily there is too much dual in my conlang!  ;-)

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Remi Villatel
maxilys_@_tele2.fr
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