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Re: [txeqli] Correlatives



on 3/11/02 2:21 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote:

> Rex May - Baloo wrote:


>> 
>> 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

Yes, except I see that we have both tor for manner and sor for kind.  Need
to change one or the other
> 
> 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:

I agree
> 
> 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."

Yes
> 
> 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."

Yes!
> 
> 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".

Could be zam, or vrem from Russian.  Maybe kron from greek.  Definitely we
need the three terms for time.

-- 
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> Rex F. May (Baloo)
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