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Re: The difficulties of being weirder than English

From:Jean-François Colson <fa597525@...>
Date:Thursday, May 27, 2004, 7:28
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <joe@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: The difficulties of being weirder than English


> Peter Bleackley wrote: > > > Staving Amanda Babcock: > > > > > > > >> 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? :) > >> > > > > I have an idea for a language, provisionally entitled "the Coastal > > Language", whose (human) speakers have a deeply-entrenched cultural idea > > that everything has a natural quantity. Its nouns belong to genders > > determined by the natural quantity, and each gender has its own number > > system. The corporeal gender contains items such as body parts whose > > natural number is considered to be two, so the singular form has been > > absorbed into the dual. > > > What about Noses, Torsos, Heads, and the like? > >
And what about my right hand?