[YG Conlang Archives] > [romconlang group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >

[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: Silvish scratchpad

What do you all think about postpositions in a Romance language? I'm thinking about putting a few in Silvish, maybe under Germanic influence. But I have yet to find uncontroversial postpositions in a Romance language beyond perhaps French's là-dessous and so on.

What I've got so far is that a few prepositions, no more than 10, can be placed after the noun phrase under certain circumstances. The preposition must be predicative, and the main verb must be able to take ettre "to be" as its present-perfect auxiliary (i.e. reflexives, passive constructions and some intransitives), though it doesn't have to be in the present perfect. When these requirements are met, one has the option to move the preposition. A few might also change meaning based on position; tentative example:

L' ambrou l' e hhu desu lê mezwé.
The tree fell on the house.

L' ambrou l' e hhu lê mezwé desu.
The tree fell toward the house.

This has been on my mind all day, and now I've got to sleep, so I just needed to get that out of my head. I'd love to know your thoughts.