Detail #96: Predicative Possession and Instrumentals

It should be pretty easy to form instrumentals out of predicative possession. Just as a hint.

A Song

As an entirely unrelated thing, I recently made a song that may be of some interest to conlangers, as it is in an unusual tuning system - 11 tone equal temperament. Except the minor second, pretty much each interval is audibly off from the scales we are used to.

There's no reason to expect non-human or even non-western cultures to conform to the tuning system that has swept the western world since about 200 years ago. Even so, 11-tone equal temperament is not a very likely contender to even appear in any realistic non-information age culture in my opinion, although scales with somewhat similar structures could be a bit more realistic. (The most realistic option that enables songs with the harmonic and melodic structures of this scale would be 17-tone equal temperament, because 11 and 17 both are integer solutions to 5x + y, where x ≠ y, x ≠ 0 ≠ y and 17-tet per se is realistic because it has a low-error fifth. Granted, 22-tone equal temperament is also a possibility with an acceptable fifth.)

Enjoy!

Barxaw: Possessive Constructions

The possessive constructions of Barxa tend to be rather varied in what other functions the different expressions overlap with. In this post, both predicative possession and attributive possession is described.

For nominal constructions, the overlaps mainly are in how the possessor or the possessee is marked:
One of the primary overlaps is the recipient or beneficiary:

aðál ðo Kpèma - Kpèma's horse (horse for Kpéma)

il istà kuì ðo Kpèma éŋxa  - that house belongs to Kpèma (by inheritance)

wík'an çùmut òrt^ho ðo Janwàp - three gifts (are/were) presented to Janwàp

saxk'ùlhimá ðo Inàm ðo Epáλ do Risíx - Nénsiqu òrt^ho ðo - harshword (~criticism) to Inàm, Epáɟ and Risíx was given by Nénsiqu. 

Q^huì ðo Kpèma - Kpèma's possession(s), alternatively also the VP 'belongs to Kpèma'. 

Another overlap is causative constructions, where causers and possessors can be marked the same for normally intransitive, stative verbs. The causee takes a preposition, as does the possessee. 

ɛ̀ŋðà kur jà Uq^hir zémp'u t'rol - Eŋðà makes Uq^hir carry burden

Rəɟə` kur t'aníp jà Epàλ - Rəɟə` cause scare to Epàλ 

C'aʝ kur lùjun  jà istà - C'aʝ's house is big, C'aʝ has a big house.

The fourth construction is a double comitative - with x with y, where y is the possessed noun. Often, this has animate nouns as possessees or culturally significant nouns, but some nouns we would normally consider inanimate are considered animate in Barxaw:

k'e kopì k'e dəsé - with thunder with rain - thunder brings rain, thunder has rain

k'e Inàm k'e aðál ðo Kpèma - Inam has/brings a horse for Kpèma.

k'e Inàm k'e tanaλ, k'e dìnaλ - Inàm has brothers and sisters.

k'e Epàλ k'e losàm - Epàλ has the respect of the community

k'e C'aʝ k'e níxq^hà ðo il-Pəzézð - C'aʝ has judicial authority in Pəzézð village.

Some verb-related derivations in Ćwarmin

-enit|-unut - Adverb or noun derived from a verb, denoting the span of time it takes to carry out the action.

-irŋi|-urŋu -  Non-volitional agentive noun; klaturŋu - klutz.

-apur|-əpir - Noun-form that refers to a person whose mandate or responsibility carrying the verb out is. Tends either to be negative or positive in connotation - important titles often end in -apur|-əpir, so do several insults. Neutral designations tend just to use the regular agentive for similar roles.

-edre|-adra - A group-agentive noun, i.e. an ensemble of musicians, a theatre troupe, a crew, etc. Attaches to a verb. In the singular, it denotes one group, in the plural several groups, all who perform some kind of action together.

Detail #95: Adjectives that affect number

Imagine a language with plurals and singulars, but little or no congruence. Further, imagine that for some common adjectives - small, big, adjectives denoting membership in local tribes, tall, short, wide, - have forms that include coding for plurals, paucals, indefinites, nullar number, etc - some formed by some regular process, although many being formed by suppletion or by morphemes unique to one or two words. Not all of these adjectives have all of these forms.

Further, those among these that code for a non-singular meaning block the plural marking on the noun. However, if multiple adjectives of this kind are part of the same phrase, they all take the corresponding form - to the extent that they all do have corresponding forms.



As complements they do showcase congruence, however.

Intensifying Adjectives, Verbs and Nouns in Barxaw

Barxaw does not have comparatives or superlatives (although it does have comparative constructions), but it does have particles that intensify certain adjectives. These particles also serve to intensify verbs, and sometimes can serve by themselves as (intensive) adjectives with specific nouns.

tìì - intensifies adjectives denoting spatial smallness, weakness, cuteness, childishness, shortness, lack, but also limberness. Certain negative looks for men - scrawniness, lankiness, etc.

ťɛn - adjectives denoting fastness, strength, might, richness, coarseness, manliness, handsomeness or any adjective describing a male's looks in a positive manner.

ćá - femininity, beauty, but can also be used to insult a man.

ťáć - longevity, durability, amount, stability, endurance, fitness, quality, skill. Also for verbal time span, and can combine with 'do' to operate as a compound preposition 'ťáć do λip řú

pil - fine, rich in detail, refined, textured. Also with verbs of cognition or thought, perception or the playing of musical instruments as well as song. 

kçup' - intensifies mainly verbs of a kinetic nature. It is also a noun that is used as the head when forming compounds denoting huge measures. 

ɟɛ̀m -  a catch-all intensifier for other positive adjectives

zágì - a catch-all intensifier for negative qualities 

ʝáp - a verbal intensifier for 'social verbs' (verbs denoting behaviors, relationships, approval or disapproval, participation, religious adherence and legal obedience)

suλɲ̟ò - a verbal intensifier for productive verbs (verbs denoting activities such as fishing, farming, harvesting, cooking, building, ploughing, ...) Can also, as an adjective denote a productive person. 

Conlanging by Fiat: an example

A while ago, I posted a thought on what I termed conlanging by fiat. I did not provide any really clear example, since I am pretty bad at coming up with such things - especially ones that seem convincing and realistic. (I could easily come up with contrived ones, but there's a reason I don't use that, and it starts with con- and ends with -trived.)

As luck would have it, I ran into such an example in a recent discussion about polysynthetic languages. The discussion had other terminological confusions in it, and I am really happy it came up, as some confusion was resolved, and it seems people were willing to learn - a commendable trait, due to its infrequent appearance in human populations in general. I have asked for permission to use this example by its originator, and I really appreciate their cooperation on this.

So, the question was what to use instead of cases, if one wanted not to have them in a polysynthetic language. A suggestion was presented: use suffixes that are invariant. (In other terms, suffixes with only one allomorph per suffix.) It is superficially similar to cases, but it is not the same thing.

The reasoning behind this is based on a mistaken notion of what a case is, but the interesting thing is the approach, and I will exaggerate the approach taken in that discussion a bit - beyond what my source did at the very least, but not by far:

Have a set of suffixes that are applied to nouns, and mark their role in the sentence. Assert that these are not case forms. Say your language therefore manages to mark sentence roles efficiently, but without a case system.

Anyone see the problem? We have essentially created cases, and the only thing that makes our forms non-cases is our assertion that they indeed aren't cases.