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on 2/10/03 5:51 AM, Ray Bergmann at rayberau@hidden.email wrote: > Rex May - Baloo <rmay@hidden.email> wrote > >> on 2/8/03 10:22 PM, Alexander Browne at >> alexbrowne@hidden.email wrote: >>>> I've decided that the Ceqli word for 'person' >> should be 'so'> 'xi' means 'woman'> >> I'm > considering 'jo' or 'zo'> >> We want three different words ? person, man(male), >> woman(female)> All should have the form CV, with > each C and V being> different. The latter two will > have the forms Co and Ci. Assigning the second two > thus:> zo and xi means that 'person' must end with > vowel 'u'> I'm inclined towards 'su'. > > Ray: XI is perfect for female, and ZO/JO or ZU/JU seem > reasonable choices for male. S~ is closely related to > both X~ and Z~ and is balanced between them. X~ and > J~ are also balanced in relationship to S~ and Z~. > Either R~ or Y~ strike me to be as appropriate for > person than S~ or Z~. Below I have listed the > possibilities to weigh up the balance: > > Examples: > Female - Person - Male > XI - RA - ZU > XI - RA - ZO* > XI - RA - JU > XI - RA - JO* > XI - RE - ZU > XI - RE - ZO* > XI - RE - JU > XI - RE - JO* > XI - RO - ZU > XI - RU - ZO > XI - RO - JU > XI - RU - JO > XI - YA/SA - ZU > XI - YA - RO* > XI - YE/SE - ZU > XI - YE/SE - RO > XI - SA - ZE > XI - SA - ZO* > XI - SO - ZU > XI - SO - ZE > XI - SU - ZE > XI - SU - ZO* > > I asterisked those that looked better balanced to me > and list them here: > XI - RA - ZO > XI - RA - JO > XI - RE - ZO > XI - RE - JO > XI - YA - RO > XI - SA - ZO > XI - SU - ZO > > As a Japanese speaker JO strikes me as being female so > out of these I would choose: > XI - RA - ZO > XI - RE - ZO* > XI - YA - RO > XI - SA - ZO* > XI - SU - ZO > > RA also seems masculine to me - it is the word for > male in Sona! And ~U - ~O are not always distinctive > in Semitic languages...... > > So finally: > 'XI - SA - ZO' looks best to me! Very good reasoning. A couple of points: rV and yV are not possible as Ceqli morphs because of the phonology rules, alas. XI - SA - ZO would be my choice, too, except that they're all three going to appear a lot as the last element of a compound. Tho unstressed 'a' at the end of a word is permitted, it is discouraged, lest it tend towards schwa, which is an allophone of unstressed 'e'. Consequently, from all of this imput, it seems pretty clear that the winner is XI - SU - ZO -- >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/ceqli/