Re: Different Words with Large Common Substrings

--- On Mon, 10/13/08, Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...> wrote:
>
> |3 Alternatives
> |And Rosta's Livagian uses another method which, though
> not a self-
> |segregating morphology in the strict sense, partly serves
> the same
> |purpose with less restriction in the phonological shape of
> words.
...

> In theory, there's no difference between theory and
> practice.
> In practice, there is.
Off the top of my head:

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to reserve one specific vowel, or consonant, or CV to
be a separator used between components? Suppose "na" were reserved and its use
in any root were forbidden. Then "aketnapolulinare" can only be "aket + poluli
+ re". No other partitioning could possibly be correct, regardless of whether
"po", "pol", "polu", "polul", also existed as distinct components.

po + lu -> ponalu (not polu)
polu + li -> polunali (not poluli)
poluli + re -> polulinare (not polulire)

Depending on your morphology, any single vowel or consonant might suffice:

If all syllables are CV then any "VV" must mark a join, where the second vowel can be any vowel:

mo + nu -> moanu (not monu)
monu + raka -> monuiraka (not monuraka)

Allowing VCV syllables would require some other marker be used such as a glottal stop,
or an otherwise unused consonant (say 'h') in cases where CV + VCV -> CV'VCV or
CVhVCV. (ku + ano -> ku'ano or kuhano to distinguish it from ku + no -> kuano).

Likewise, with CV syllables, any "CC" marks a join, regardless of the identity of the first C:

mo + nu -> moknu
monu + raka -> monutraka

But again, VCV syllables are problematic: CV + VCV -> CVCVCV which is ambiguous
unless one particular consonant is reserved only for use as a join marker, say
"h":

monu + ara + ka -> monuharaska = CVCVhVCVCCV where "CC" and "h" are join markers. (or monu'araska)

Now suppose syllables of the form CV or CVn are permitted. Then another unique,
distinctive marker, not permitted anywhere else, (such as "i'i") could be used
to distinguish between (with "iai" replacing any legitimate i + i join):

rona + ta -> ronaita
ron + ta -> roni'ita
roni + ta -> roniata
roni + ita -> roniaita)
pan + nu -> pani'inu

The same marker could be used to join other CVC or VCV syllables such as:

par + ti -> pari'iti
tasam + moto -> tasami'imoto
tom + aba -> tomi'iaba


--gary