Monday, October 26, 2015

Indefinite Pronouns in Ćwarmin and Sargaĺk

Again I want to turn your attention to ye merrye conlangre's little typological treatise on indefinite pronouns. It is gold.

With Ćwarmin, we have to use several tables, because the different pronouns overlap each other too much otherwise:
bek'-:

(7) DN
(1) SK(2) SU(3) I/NS(4) QU(6) IN
(5) COND(8) COMP

(9) FC
bek' is barely ever used productively in the zone marked with gray. However, a number of fossilized expressions have bek' in that position.

vak'e-:

(7) DN
(1) SK(2) SU(3) I/NS(4) QU(6) IN
(5) COND(8) COMP

(9) FC
suv-:, ink'-

(7) DN
(1) SK(2) SU(3) I/NS(4) QU(6) IN
(5) COND(8) COMP

(9) FC
Sargaĺk has a slightly simpler system:

(7) DN
(1) SK(2) SU(3) I/NS(4) QU(6) IN
(5) COND(8) COMP

(9) FC
mar-, vur-, jok-. Vur- sometimes reaches into COMP.
In Ćwarmin, the pronouns can be used both independently and as determiners. Sargaĺk does not permit their independent use, but forms compounds with the adjectives 'good', ete, thus getting forms like marete, vurete, jokete. With human referents, it often uses kime instead, obtaining markime, vurkime, jokime. In certain situations, suma, 'saint' can be used, obtaining marsuma, vursuma, joksuma; this can either be a very profound religious expression or very rude.

I am working out a similar set of graphs for Dairwueh and Bryatesle, with the intention of comparing and contrasting these systems through some example sentences.

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