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Re: [saweli] quote of the day
- From: MorphemeAddict@hidden.email
- Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:00:47 EDT
- Subject: Re: [saweli] quote of the day
- To: saweli@yahoogroups.com
In a message dated 6/4/2007 7:06:40 AM Central Daylight Time, sts@hidden.email writes:
I thought the apostrophe was a consonant "like any other", a glotal stop?
Well, it is a glottal stop, but it also tends to mark modifications (usually an opposite) of the classifier, so I stress the syllable it precedes. The apostrophe is different from other consonants, in that it occurs only in classifiers and always after a vowel. It's used to expand and augment the the CV classifiers, of which there are only 95 possible, given the alphabet I use (standard 26 letters + apostrophe). Not all the CV shapes are used, but there is also some order imposed on the classifiers semantically, so that classifiers beginning with the same letter share some semantics.
Some adhoc classifiers I have used, but not recorded in the dictionary pertain to extraterrestrial life forms, and mean something like "similar to terrestrial ...". That's a Klingon influence.
stevo