Re: Long Languages

I've noticed that Tokana texts tend to come out a bit longer
than their English equivalents, given the compactness of
English, and the fact that many common one-syllable words in
English (pronouns, determiners) have two-syllable analogues
in Tokana.  But I don't fret about it too much.  For a sense
of perspective, think about Tolkien's Entish language, in
which it takes all afternoon just to say your name!  :-)

Actually, there are areas of the grammar where Tokana
manages to cram more meaning into each syllable than English
does.  In the area of clausal embedding, for example, Tokana
has something of an advantage, since it makes use of bound
morphology to conflate tense, mood, and complementisers:

        liuna     "be old"
        liunanme  "that I am old"
        liunanom  "that I would be old" or "for me to be old"

In this last example, Tokana can say in three syllables what
it takes English five syllables to say.

Matt.