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On 11.3.2007 jsjonesmiami wrote: > Hi! I'm working on a new language, currently called > Lethino, which branches off fairly early. One problem I > have is that, because s > x, which > > > when word final, the 3rd person plural object pronouns > become identical to the corresponding singular pronouns. > Any ideas? > > Thanks, Jeff My immediate thought is that the reflexes of ILLORUM and ILLARUM would take over the function as plural object pronouns. Something similar happens in Russian where nominative and accusative became identical in all declensions except the feminine singular, but speakers apparently felt that it would be a good idea to keep distinguishing the subject and object for animates, so they started to use the genitive for animate objects in the masculine singular and the plural. This goes not only for pronouns but also for nouns and adjectives. If you go for this option you should perhaps have the singular objective come from the dative ILLUI/*ILL� and *ILLAEI as well, unless Lethino branched off so early that *ILLAEI hadn't developed yet. Also cf. how the dative singular pronouns are used as emphatic forms for all cases in many 'real' Romlangs. Another possibility comes from Andalusian Spanish where syllable final s > h. In some dialects -- notably Granade�o -- h goes on to zero, but before that it causes a lowering in the preceding vowel, so that -as -es -os > /-& -E -O/ contrasting with /-a_" -e -o/ in the singular. If you don't want an eight vowel system you can have rising of [-e -o] so that you end up with /-a -i -u/ in the singular and /-e -e -o/ in the plural, which is gratifyingly wacky compared to 'real' Romlangs like Italian and Rumanian. Perhaps also an u > y > i sound change to make the wackiness complete? How does Lethino form the plural of nouns and adjectives? From the nominative? BTW your zero came through OK. I read mail in a font (Bitstream Vera/DejaVu Sans Mono) where and O are clearly distinguished by a dot in zero, but in e.g. Courier they look essentially identical. -- /BP 8^) -- Benct Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@hidden.email (delete X!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "If a language is a dialect with an army and a navy, of what language, pray, is Basque a dialect?" (R.A.B.)