Post by King John on Jun 12, 2007 12:34:23 GMT -6
Herewith three proposals for slight morphological changes in some Talossan nouns and adjectives. These have been kicked around a little "behind the scenes", but I thought it might be a good idea to let the whole world see them.
PROPOSAL M1 (revision of 11 June 2007)
Currently, nouns and adjectives in -án form their plural in -áes. That is, there is an underlying rule of pluralization that modifies -áns to ‑áes. Talossán (= a Talossan) -> Talossáes (= Talossans).
Also, nouns and adjectives ending in a stressed vowel form the plural by adding -n before adding -s. Apricò -> apricòns.
But there is a seeming conflict between these rules when a noun or adjective ends in -à. For instance, cavità (= hole) -> cavitàns (= holes). But cavitàns should (by the first rule) modify even further to cavitáes. Problem is, the rules as stated don’t allow that further modification, so we’re left with cavitàns, which seems (and sounds) really wrong. Capitán, capitáes; cavità, cavitáes – that sounds right.
So that’s my proposal. Change the rule that says that nouns and adjectives ending in a stressed vowel form the plural by adding -n before adding -s, and make it “ending in a stressed vowel OTHER THAN A”. Then specify that nouns and adjectives ending in a stressed a form their plural by changing -à to -áes.
PROPOSAL M2 (revision of 11 June 2007)
Nouns and adjectives decline almost exactly alike in Talossan, with the exception that some adjectives decline for gender, but nouns don’t. (Unless the dictionary lists the gender-declined cases separately, as with carigñheu and carigñha, both = darling, or enfiglhat = godson and enfiglhadâ = goddaughter. But this is rare.) Nouns do however change their grammatical gender to correspond to the sex of the referent. So el Ministreu is the (male) Minister, la Ministreu is the (female) Minister. This gets really ugly, though, when you put a (declining) adjective into the mix. So the handsome (or beautiful) Minister, for instance, would be (male and female respectively) el Ministreu frumoaseu, and la Ministreu frumoasâ, with the adjective declining to match the gender of a noun that doesn’t decline. Or even worse, ün encarçerat amat (= a beloved prisoner) would, in the feminine, become ünâ encarçerat amadâ. Dreck.
A simple solution exists. Just as adjectives are invariable for gender except when they end with -eu, -éu, or -esc, or are past participles ending with -at (which four endings become, in the feminine, -â, -â, -eascâ, and -adâ), nouns should do exactly the same. When a so-called bisexual noun ends with one of the three “declinable” endings, or is simply a past participle in -at, it should take a feminine form just as if it were an adjective. L'encarçeradâ estimadâ, 'n Ministrâ frumoasâ.
And further, I think we should take this opportunity to implement one of Sir Tomás Gariçéir’s proposals. He suggests:
So combining my proposal with his, let us rule that
1. The feminine ending of an adjective in -éu is henceforth to be -éa. (The very rare orthographic change whereby those adjectives in -céu formerly went to -ciâ, and those in -chéu to -câ, is no longer necessary; ejuncéu -> ejuncéa, acusichéu -> acusichéa.)
2. “Bisexual nouns” ending in -eu, -éu, or -esc, and those which are past participles ending in -at, when used of a female referent, change gender just as if they were adjectives (in -â, -éa, -eascâ, and -adâ).
PROPOSAL M3
Currently, first-declension nouns form their plural in -s, except that if it is difficult to pronounce the plural in -s, the speaker may optionally form the plural in -en; BUT if the noun ends in -s, its plural MUST be in -en. I propose adding first-declension nouns ending in the sounds of -sch and -tsch, -scht, -xh, -tx, -z, -glh, and -gñh to the ones whose plurals MUST form with -en. (I can’t even SAY uglhs.)
– John R
PROPOSAL M1 (revision of 11 June 2007)
Currently, nouns and adjectives in -án form their plural in -áes. That is, there is an underlying rule of pluralization that modifies -áns to ‑áes. Talossán (= a Talossan) -> Talossáes (= Talossans).
Also, nouns and adjectives ending in a stressed vowel form the plural by adding -n before adding -s. Apricò -> apricòns.
But there is a seeming conflict between these rules when a noun or adjective ends in -à. For instance, cavità (= hole) -> cavitàns (= holes). But cavitàns should (by the first rule) modify even further to cavitáes. Problem is, the rules as stated don’t allow that further modification, so we’re left with cavitàns, which seems (and sounds) really wrong. Capitán, capitáes; cavità, cavitáes – that sounds right.
So that’s my proposal. Change the rule that says that nouns and adjectives ending in a stressed vowel form the plural by adding -n before adding -s, and make it “ending in a stressed vowel OTHER THAN A”. Then specify that nouns and adjectives ending in a stressed a form their plural by changing -à to -áes.
PROPOSAL M2 (revision of 11 June 2007)
Nouns and adjectives decline almost exactly alike in Talossan, with the exception that some adjectives decline for gender, but nouns don’t. (Unless the dictionary lists the gender-declined cases separately, as with carigñheu and carigñha, both = darling, or enfiglhat = godson and enfiglhadâ = goddaughter. But this is rare.) Nouns do however change their grammatical gender to correspond to the sex of the referent. So el Ministreu is the (male) Minister, la Ministreu is the (female) Minister. This gets really ugly, though, when you put a (declining) adjective into the mix. So the handsome (or beautiful) Minister, for instance, would be (male and female respectively) el Ministreu frumoaseu, and la Ministreu frumoasâ, with the adjective declining to match the gender of a noun that doesn’t decline. Or even worse, ün encarçerat amat (= a beloved prisoner) would, in the feminine, become ünâ encarçerat amadâ. Dreck.
A simple solution exists. Just as adjectives are invariable for gender except when they end with -eu, -éu, or -esc, or are past participles ending with -at (which four endings become, in the feminine, -â, -â, -eascâ, and -adâ), nouns should do exactly the same. When a so-called bisexual noun ends with one of the three “declinable” endings, or is simply a past participle in -at, it should take a feminine form just as if it were an adjective. L'encarçeradâ estimadâ, 'n Ministrâ frumoasâ.
And further, I think we should take this opportunity to implement one of Sir Tomás Gariçéir’s proposals. He suggests:
Retain the stressed syllable in adjectives ending in -éu. So adjectives ending in stressed -éu should form the feminine in -éa (or ‑éia?) and only those ending in unstressed -eu should change to ustressed -a (previously -â).This really should be done. We have el auteu moderneu (moderneu has three syllables), la plümâ modernâ (also three), el auteu steçéu (again, three syllables), but la plümâ steçâ (two, with the stress shifted). Sir Tomás is right. It should be la plümâ steçéâ.
So combining my proposal with his, let us rule that
1. The feminine ending of an adjective in -éu is henceforth to be -éa. (The very rare orthographic change whereby those adjectives in -céu formerly went to -ciâ, and those in -chéu to -câ, is no longer necessary; ejuncéu -> ejuncéa, acusichéu -> acusichéa.)
2. “Bisexual nouns” ending in -eu, -éu, or -esc, and those which are past participles ending in -at, when used of a female referent, change gender just as if they were adjectives (in -â, -éa, -eascâ, and -adâ).
PROPOSAL M3
Currently, first-declension nouns form their plural in -s, except that if it is difficult to pronounce the plural in -s, the speaker may optionally form the plural in -en; BUT if the noun ends in -s, its plural MUST be in -en. I propose adding first-declension nouns ending in the sounds of -sch and -tsch, -scht, -xh, -tx, -z, -glh, and -gñh to the ones whose plurals MUST form with -en. (I can’t even SAY uglhs.)
– John R
