[YG Conlang Archives] > [ceqli group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
on 3/6/02 12:36 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > Rex May - Baloo wrote: >> >> So far, then, we've nailed down the following: >> >> 1. /tS/ is represented by c, never by tx. >> >> 2. Vowels never become semivowels. Y and W are used instead. >> >> 3. Stress is always on the first syllable. >> >> 4. Compounds are always head-last. Xipam, dadom, blufawl, etc. > > Looks good. > >> Now I want to go into grammar big time. > > I was thinking last night about the neatness of the Japanese and > Hokkien systems of demonstrative pronouns and such, and I have a > proposal. I'll just use made up sounds, without worrying too much > about whether they are available or not. > > The basic idea is to have four categories of compounds. Each compound > would start with one of four modifiers: > > ci - near the speaker > so - near the person being spoken to > tu - distant from both (not always applicable) > kwa - interrogative > > I picked these sounds for maximum distinctiveness. > > Then, there would be a variety of heads: > > jai - place > tor - manner, way > vo - one(s) > faq - direction > fwa - point in time > hu - (connector) > > These would combine to give: > > cijai - here > sojai - there > tujai - yonder > kwajai - where? > > citor - like this, in this way > sotor - like that, in that way > (tutor) > kwator - how? in what way? > > civo - this one > sovo - that one > tuvo - that one over yonder > kwavo - which one? > > cifaq - hither, hence > sofaq - thither,thence > tufaq - yon > kwafaq - whither? whence? > > cifwa - now > sofwa - then > (tufwa - way back then) > kwafwa - when? > > cihu kan - this dog > sohu kan - that dog > tuhu kan - that dog over yonder > kwahu kan - which dog? > > Does this seem like a useful approach? Oo, I -like- this! Take a look at the correlatives I already did, which are very much similar to the Esperanto, at http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/Ceqcorrel.html We can have more than four, as you can see, but I think I want to start from what you've got here. Oops. Got to run to my Mandarin class! -- >PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: rmay@hidden.email > Rex F. May (Baloo) > Daily cartoon at: http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp > Buy my book at: http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/gdummy.htm > Language site at: http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/Uploadexp.htm >Discuss my auxiliary language at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/txeqli/