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Re: [ceqli] Update



On 2/27/06, Rex May <rmay@hidden.email> wrote:
> I think I have the first chapter updated correctly.  Proofreading
> solicited.
>
> http://www.geocities.com/ceqli//gramintro.html

I notice some unnecessary line breaks, here:

<P>But, as in Chinese and English, adjectives also <br>modify nouns by
preceding them,
<br>but there is a special rule for that.  First we`ll add some vocabulary:

Also, the use of all-caps TCEQLI here is grating.
Wouldn't it be better to refer to it (in English text)
as "Tceqli"?

>Where is djoe?

Was this "Where is Joe" and did it
get mangled by a search and replace?
There's more later,

>djoe drives the car.

>Recommend, djoin army.

>That you are djohn's son may be true.

>(djohn is-at there.)

You could explicitly mention here whether
"kwa" and such-like morphemes double
as relatives and interrogatives, as in
English, French etc.

Also, in the section on "sa", that morpheme
is sometimes written (and pronounced?) as a
suffix and sometimes as a stand-alone particle,
e.g.,

>to pi sa djin
>zi ten hawsa gayr.

You should either (1) *explicitly* say that
both forms are acceptable and mean the same
thing, (2) say what the difference in meaning
is and give more examples, or (3) pick one
form and use it consistently throughout
the grammar, dictionary, and texts.

>if it's feared that the latter will be heard as hawgayr insert the sa."

I think the last quote mark is spurious.

>"THE" WORDS -ARTICLES

You should have an emdash or a double dash here.

 "&mdash;" or "--"

>Generally, words of the shape tV and tVV are reserved ....

You could add a parenthetical note "(that is,
|t| followed by one or two vowels)".

>tai - This is the foreign word marker: Go caw tay Mississippi. - I
see the Mississippi. Go pa kom tay sushi - I ate sushi.

Is it |tai| or |tay|?

Also, here two sample sentences begin with a
capital "G".   Doesn't Tceqli use all lowercase
or all uppercase?

Again,

>tay manger betay smin toy kom betoy hu TCEQLI.

Why is "TCEQLI" in all caps in the middle of this
lowercase Tceqli sentence?

More spurious initial caps:

>Ke zi filo janzo beke fei hai.

(also should have "djanzo", kyu bu?)

>"To tcurdjin, da dan tci sa tcam."

> pawses
pauses
(several places)

Overall, I think it's an improvement in clarity
over the last version, with a few glitches probably
due to careless search-and-replace.  I may
have more comments later.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang.htm