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I forgot to mention the alternative reflex of UNA
which I prefer to _one_, namely _na_. The only
problem with it is that IN UNA and ET UNA will
become homophonous.
--- In romconlang@yahoogroups.com, Benct Philip
Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:
>
>
> Rhodrese, like Einglek(*), has problems with
preserving
> gender distinctions in pronouns and articles. The
etyma in
> question here are ILLE and UNU (I simply decided
that no
> forms of IPSE survived, except METIPSIMUS of
course!)
>
> The regular reflexes are as follows:
>
> : ILLE el/le ILLA elle/la
> : ILLU lo (> le) ILLA la
> : ILLUI leu ILLAEI lai
> :
> : ILLI il/li ILLAE il/le
> : ILLOS lo (> le) ILLAS la/le
> : ILLORUM laur (ILLARUM liar)
> :
> : UNU un UNA one
> : *UNI eun *UNAE en
>
> Note that UNU has plural forms, like in Old French
and
> Spanish. In Rhodrese they *really* are plural
forms of the
> indefinite article, equivalent to French _des_,
since
> Rhodrese noun and adjective plurals only are
marginally
> more distinctive from singulars than in spoken
French: they
> are formed with i-mutation of the stem vowel(s),
basically
> _e_ becoming _i_ and back vowels becoming front
vowels, and
> with _i_ and _eu- /y/ not changing at all, e.g.
_figl_
> /fiL/ can be any of 'son, sons, daughters'
('daughter' is
> _figle_ -- as you see feminine singulars in _-e_
lose that
> final vowel).
>
> Now as you see there is an embarrassing high
incidence of
> identical forms in the reflexes of ILLE. Since you
can't see
> on a noun or adjective plural whether it is
masculine of
> feminine I may solve much of the ambiguity by
having a
> single set of forms in the plural -- _el, la, il_
for the
> article and the following for the pronoun:
>
> : Masc. Fem. Plur.
> :
> : el elle il
> : le la li
> : leu lai laur
>
> The problem is that with generically ambiguous
> noun/adjective plurals it might be desirable to
distinguish
> the genders in the article, and the convenience of
doing so
> in the pronouns is obvious. OTOH languages like
German,
> Russian and my own L1 (Swedish) get along very
well with
> such a lack of gender distinction in the plural of
both
> articles and pronouns. Those cases were a gender
> distinction in plural nouns really is crucial can
be fixed
> in ways attested in OTL Romlangs, like _paire_
'pear' vs.
> _perair_ 'pear-tree', and adding -INA or -ISSA
suffixes to
> get more distinct feminines, or distinct stems
like
> _cavall_ vs. _hieghe_.
>
> The indefinite article would have to follow suit,
which is
> OK, since _one_ looks like a parody of English and
_en_
> would be homophonous with IN.
>
> What do you all think?
>
> /Bendetx
>