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----- Original Message ----- From: "Christian Thalmann" <cinga@hidden.email>
To: <romconlang@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 3:16 PM Subject: [romconlang] Re: Lethino Pronouns
--- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Collier" <petecollier@...> wrote:because you have as many declensions as you do nounsSplit them into a few groups, and distill a paradigm from each of those. Then let the nouns follow the paradigm by analogy, and keep any particularly juicy forms of common nouns as irregularities, like French sg. oeil, pl. yeux. -- Christian Thalmann
That is what I had been trying to do, without any joy - I always seemed to have one piece of the puzzle either left over or missing! However, I think I have now had a little more success. The suggestion made by someone to collapse SVVM into the genitives was a very good one, and that has cleared up the worst of the mess I was in. The few remaining problems can be solved by using some (obsolete) accusative forms. Use of the definite article (< IPSE etc) removes any remaining ambiguity.
I think I need to finalise my decisions about nouns, or I will still be going round in circles when I am 80 years old. So here's what I have:
Nouns are divided broadly into 2 classes, based on their singular endings. There are two genders (neuters have mostly been reanalysed as masculine), and 3 cases - direct, genitive and dative.
- Class IMainly from Latin 1st declension, with a few nore heavily umlauted nouns derived from the Latin second declension (-ir stems).
Example: "Zer" (earth) f.
sing plur
dir sa Zer s� Zerre
gen sei Zerressu saar Zerrer
dat sy Zer sy Zerre
- Class Ia
These Class I nouns have Class II endings in their plurals. Derived from
Latin 2nd (-er stems) and 4th declensions.
Example: "Escherchis" (army) m.
sing plur
dir s� Escherchis su Escherchisse
gen sei Escherchissu sure Escherchisser
dat sy Escherchis sy Escherchisp
- Class II
From Latin 3rd and 5th declensions.
Example: "Hom" (man) m.
sing plur
dir s� Hom su H�mme
gen sei H�msu sure H�mmer
dat sy H�m sy H�mp
- Class IIa
These Class II nouns have Class I endings in their plurals. Derived from the
remaining Latin 2nd declension nouns.
Example: "Chapal" (horse) m.
sing plur
dir s� Chapal su Chapalle
gen sei Chap�lsu sure Chapaller
dat sy Chapal sy Chap�lle
~~Peter.