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Rex May - Baloo wrote: > > on 3/10/02 7:27 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > > > > > While we're at it, I notice that the definition of "da" includes > > "they". It's interesting that even in languages that don't have > > obligatory number, there are still explicitly plural pronouns. I think > > that this is because you can't normally put a number, or an adjective > > of quantity, in front of a pronoun. So, my inclination would be to add > > a pluralizer for "da". Maybe "dada", to match "zida" and "goda"? > > > I think we can say zeda. Also, possible to say zezi. And, for that matter, > handa and hanzi, when we want to make it clear that it's singular. For that > matter, when speaking in chorus, we can sa zego. > > use the first? Because it's shorter? I'm moving in > >> that direction. > > > > I think so, but I'd tend to retain the combination with "vo", thus > > keeping "kul", "ci", "jaw", and so on as true modifiers, rather than > > sometimes modifier, sometimes noun--just for the feeling of > > consistency. (But is "vo" a particle, as advertised, or is it a noun? > > Could it be considered a kind of all-purpose pronoun?) > > I think of it as meaning 'one.' Also as analagous with Mandarin de when it > doesn't precede a noun. > > As for using the prefixes without vo... They really make for nice short > words, and can we say that in a sentence like 'Ci bi kwa?' there isn't any > other possible meaning for the words than 'what is this?' So does it make > it better if we don't think of them as nouns, always use them as prefixes or > in -sa constructions, but sometimes shorten Xvo to X when no confusion will > result? Like, on the correlatives page, just add to the -vo series, "Vo > may be dropped in concise speech when no confusion will result." That sounds good to me. Better than trying to explain about adding -vo when confusion would result without it. BTW, can we add the following (the categories, not necessarily the particular sounds) as standard "series"? tor - manner, way faq - direction taym - point in time Actually, I don't like "taym" for this, since you have it defined as "duration" in the glossary. English "time" is terribly ambiguous. I'd like to see at least three different time categories: a countable instance (answers "how many times?" = <fwa>): "He stole my doughnuts three times." "Strike the bell one time in the morning and one time in the evening." "We will deal with this the next time you come." duration (answers "how long?" = <taym>): "I have lived in California for a long time." "We didn't have enough time to finish the meal before the movie." point in time (answers "when?" = <???>): "I was very angry at that time." "At this time, we are unable to help you." "At the time when we were in the movie, he started fighting with his brother." The best I've come up with so far that fits Ceqli phonology is "momen", from English "moment". It may be that the Hindustani /z@mana/ or its Malay cognate, /zaman/, would do. I see both used for things like "ancient time", which seems similar to "point in time"--though they may be more like "epoch, period". It would be nice, though, to have a one-syllable word to combine with the correlative modifiers. If nothing else appears, I suppose "momen" could be further shortened to "mom". -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net _____________________________________________________ "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese." -- Charles de Gaulle