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Rex May - Baloo wrote: > > on 3/10/02 8:35 PM, Rob Speer at rob@hidden.email wrote: > > > >>> Or, perhaps there is no need for the <X-sa> forms, and <kwa>, <ci>, > >>> <kul>, and so on, should be able to compound with any noun? > > > > Does this imply that some words won't be able to compound with any noun? > > That's a rather limiting stance to take this early in the language's > > development. > > I think there's a hangup in my own mind that works this way... When a > modifier-modified MM is clearly different than the corresponding compound > (CPD), like blusa fawl and blufawl, I'm comfortable. But when they seem to > be pretty much the same thing, like kwape and kwasa pe, I feel uneasy > somehow, because in my mind a compound means something -more specific- than > the corresponding MM. > > But I'm wrong in that tendency. Kwape is a fine word. Now, I'm getting > persuaded by Rob that we can call these base prefixes nouns. > > Kwa Ð What, which (one) > Ci Ð this one > So Ð that (by you) one > Jaw Ð that (distant from you) one > Som Ð some one, something. > Heni Ð any one, anything > Zoy Ð no one, nothing, none of > Kul Ð every thing, every one, > Ger Ð some one else, another one > > In short, the 'vo' series without the vo. <mumble, mumble> Oh, well. > Now, I see no reason why these noun forms can't go ahead and compound with > the other base words whenever we like. Obviously, some will be a lot > handier and more frequent than others.... pe, sor, jay, etc. [...] And Rob Speer wrote: > I don't see a reason not to allow "kwafawl", for example, but if it > turns out that this word would sound odd when first uttered, it could be > said as "kwasa fawl" for clarity. I agree. First-syllable stress can make less common head nouns hard to pick up on. With forms like "kwasa", the head noun gets it's own stress. So, the use of "sa" should be promoted for use with such nouns. On the other hand, the commonly used head nouns that Rex mentions should not be a problem, and there's no reason not to promote the compact compound forms for those by listing them in the glossaries. And if some people want to say <cidirhilpro>, instead of <cisa dirhilpro>, that's their business. (Or, should they be marked for deletion?) -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net _____________________________________________________ "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese." -- Charles de Gaulle