Re: The difficulties of being weirder than English

Staving Sally Caves:
>----- Original Message -----
>
>Peter Bleackley wrote:
>
>Hooray indeed.  Now leaving aside the human corporeal for a moment, Peter,
>would you apply your system to the animal and plant world?  Leaves tend to
>divide up into threes and fives if they are monocots; for the insect world
>where legs are six;  for arachnids, crabs and their relatives and octopi
>eight (I take it this is a coastal culture!); and for a great number of
>natural things--forests, grass, stars, swarms of flies, stones, flocks of
>birds, grains of sand, dust moats, etc.--infinitude?  I'm new again, to the
>list, so if you've already discussed this, forgive me.  It seems that you
>could have a gender for singulars, duals, triples, quintuples, octuples, and
>infinites, making it very evil indeed. :)
>
In the beginning, there was Khangaþyagon, which had singular and plural
(there still is, if you're a wizard). From Khangaþyagon descended
Wavoragon, spoken by semi-nomadic herdsmen, for whom the difference between
known and unknown quantities was important. The multiple number, for known
quantities, emerged, formed by reduplication, and the plural was restricted
to unknown quantities (you get worried when you discover that you've
independently reproduce a feature of Maggel). From Wavoragon descended "The
Iron Language". This was spoken by a the culture who first discovered the
forging of iron. They developed a dualistic philosophy, and believed that
the universe was goverened by the actions of pairs of complementary forces.
Two was therefore a sacred number, and merited its own gramatical number.
The dual was formed by prefixing "den" (two) to the noun.

 From "The Iron Language" descended "The Coastal Language". Its speakers
founded a port, and lived mostly by trade. This led them to the idea that
everything had its own natural quantity. Genders emerged by a process
whereby two of the numbers merged, according to what sort of quantity was
considered natural.

Animal Gender
Singular and dual merge, taking the form of the singular. This is for those
things, such as livestock, for which the most important distiction is
whether the number is known or unknown.

Corporeal Gender
Singular and dual merge, taking the form of the dual. Previously discussed.

As yet unnamed
Dual and multiple merge, taking the form of the dual. Distinctions between
small quantities are important.

As yet unnamed
Dual and multiple merge, taking the from of the multiple. Don't know how
this is distinct from Animal yet.

Artificial Gender.
Multiple and plural merge, taking the form of the multiple. When the
quantity is usually known, as with manufactured goods.

Granular Gender.
Multiple and plural merge, taking the form of the plural. When the quantity
will usually be unknown, as with grains.

Pete