Re: Conlang book

En réponse à "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...>:

>
> I remember talking about this once: you could have a conlang that uses
> suffixes for case markings, and then have a way of constructing new case
> suffixes to derive new meanings. Then you'll have a theoretically
> infinite
> number of cases :-)
>
>
Euskara has (in a limited way) a phenomenon like this called "overdeclination".
For this, it uses both its genitives (Euskara has two genitive cases: a
possessive genitive for abstract possession and a locative genitive for
localisation in space or time). The first possibility is to take a noun already
declined in one of the genitive cases (for instance, "harotzaren" in "harotzaren
etxea": "the smith's house") and to add the definite article to make a new noun
with the meaning "the one of..." (for instance: "harotzarena": "the one of the
smith"). This noun can be declined further on... The second possibility is to
take a noun declined in some case (for instance, the instrumental, like in
"urrez": "with gold") and add to it the case suffix of the locative genitive.
The new word can then complete another noun (from "urrez", you get thus
"urrezko": "golden" as in "urrezko erraztuna": "the golden ring"). Other cases
(especially the spatial ones) can be added this locative genitive case.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr