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Re: [Latejami] Latejami/Saweli

In a message dated 6/9/2008 09:50:46 AM Central Daylight Time, veoler@hidden.email writes:


If taken as a productive, semantically regular process, then "citesangye"
shouldn't be able to take an inverse voice morpheme, unless it was bivalent,
which also this, taken from Appendix C, implies:

 -tes    true conjunctions (and, or, but, if, default = P/F-s)
   [w: and, no corresponding modifier]


I hadn't noticed this discrepancy before between the reference grammar and the dictionary.  

Since "citesangye" requires two arguments, I'd go with the reference grammar version: default = P/F-s.

Parts of speech can be used freely wherever they make sense and are grammatical.  Derivations from dictionary words may also be used freely.  What is not open in Latejami is constructing new words from modifiers and classifiers.  Because the classifiers are semantically precise, one may be chosen for a concept, but then there is no established way to choose the modifiers to add to it for creating new roots.  In Saweli, I have taken it upon myself to create new words and change many of Rick's words to forms that are less opaque.  I also reduce the adhoc nature of many of the roots he created by using a special device (namely, adding "y" after the first consonant; see note below) to add an existing root to a classifier.  

Note:  The modifier "ze" in "zetigi" is used not for its literal values of 'long/road/walk/line/string/hair', but rather for a new, undocumented value "RIVER".  This is acceptable to him because the modifiers are mnemonic, not precise.
zetigi [P-s] - hippopotamus. "Zetigi" includes all members of family Hippopotamidae. [Etym: RIVER + large grazing mammal]
zebivi [P-s] - river. [Etym: big/high polarity + natural body of water]

I create a word for 'hippopotamus' from 'river' too, but I do it explicitly:  add 'y' after the first consonant of the root of 'river' to get the new modifier for 'hippopotamus'.  This is not a perfect solution to the problem of how to create derivations from existing words, since it's not possible to distinguish between bi-kyame-s (from "kames" - 'river') and a hypothetical "[bi-kya]-me-s" ("bi-kya-" from "kas" - 'body of water', plus modifier "me" 'long/road/walk/line/string/hair'), which would mean something like 'a long large-grazing-mammal associated with bodies of water'.

bikyames hippopotamus.
kames river.

This is a productive process, and derivations from other derivations are also possible, though unwieldy.  E.g.,
"nalyafyecukis" = 'pastry' is from "lafyecukis" = 'dough, batter', which is from "lafyecus" = 'flour' + "ki" for 'water'.  

Latejami just uses "botofupi [P-s] - dough, batter. [Etym: WATER + FLOUR]", where
WATER = bocivi [P-s] - water, H2O. [Etym: fish/water/liquid/swim + element/compound],
FLOUR = tofupi [P-s] - flour. [Etym: GRAIN + processed food substance], and
GRAIN = todopi [P-s] - grain [the plant]. [Etym: indefinite/nonspecific/general + farm/garden plant]

stevo