MrKrov's scratchpad thread collection of posts

[MrKrov]

I need a thread to motivate me from not hopping projects.
Placeholder post to be edited after an adequate sleep.

Lazy late night phonology bits
- (C)V syllable structure
- voicing contrast

Grammar bits to ease my guilt:
- pervasive lack of plural-marking on either nouns or verb agreement
- no action nominals
- no tense, yes aspect but sth more interesting than imperfective vs perfective
- no lexical negation (I.e. no "none", "nobody", etc.)
- possessive pedicates as conjoined ("with-subtype")
- conjoined comparative ("negative polarity subtype")
- two adverbial directional prefix slots on verbs
- misc. teased verb categories
- wh-in-situ

[MrKrov]

So how about them adjectives:
They constitute a distinct class. They can't be used substantively or predicatively without the requisite derivation.
They also don't take any of the morphology used by either nouns or verbs and have their own.
The only category adjectives inflect for is gender. The morphology is purely concatenative and suffixal. It is obligatory.
The suffixes are -hu, -lá and -go for the masculine, feminine and neuter genders respectively.
Ex: tabókohu dara "skinny man", tabókolá yiba "skinny woman", tabókogo gebora "skinny owl"

In attributive position they follow any determiners and/or numerals and come before the noun(s) they modify.

Co-ordinated nouns of differing gender being modified by the same adjective have the adjective take the gender of the noun highest in the gender hierarchy: Feminine > Masculine > Neuter.
Since the structure ADJ NOUN & NOUN is ambiguous between [ADJ [NOUN]] & [NOUN] and [ADJ [NOUN & NOUN], you could just give each noun its own copy of the adjective, phrase unmodified nouns before the adjective and other noun or just suck up the ambiguity.

Each adjective to be co-ordinated must be separated with the conjunction ra between each adjective to be conjoined.
Ex: turago ra asago simá "red & yellow summer"
This'll be the same co-ordinating conjunction to be used with nouns and not verbs.
Ex: hipí ra nepí "hand & foot"

[MrKrov]

On predicative possession:

Predicative possession is expressed by a conunctional strategy where the possessor is the subject, the possessee is a comitative adjunct marked by the postposition tuí and the verbal predicate by the verb -so- "exist".

Ex: yiba zorá tuí fesoá
yiba zorá tuí fe-so-á
woman fish COM 3F-exist-IND
A woman has a fish.

[Lao Kou]

the possessee is a comitative adjunct marked by the postposition tuí

Ex: yiba zorá fesoá
yiba zorá fe-so-á
woman fish 3F-exist-IND
A woman has a fish.

Whither tuí?

[MrKrov]

I blame my phone and spotty deadzone shenanigans on making me overlook re-inputting it. Fixed.

[MrKrov]

Follow-up on possession:

Attributive possession is expressed by a double-marking strategy where the possessor is marked with the postposition ru, the possessee is marked with a prefix expressing agreement with the possessor for person and (for third persons) gender, and the possessor precedes the possessee. Pronominal possessors may be represented by just the prefix.

The possessive prefixes are:
1st person a-
2nd person vo-
3rd person Masc. i-
3rd person Fem. nú-
3rd person Neut. gi-

Ex: yiba ru núzóra
yiba ru nú-zóra
woman GEN 3F-fish
woman's fish

[MrKrov]

So, covering copulas and predicative adjectives here:

The basic "noun1 is noun2" construction is expressed by a verbal copula stratregy where noun1 is the subject, noun2 is marked with the postposition dorǽ (roughly meaning like or as) and the copula -ya- comes last.

Ex: tákuri zefa doræ guyaá
tákuri zefa=doræ gu-ya-á
crow bird=as 3N-be-IND
Crows are birds.

The copula is always required.

The basic predicative adjective construction requires the adjective to be nominalized with -sa but is normally otherwise the same.
Ex: zóra asasa doræ guyaá
zóra asa-sa=doræ gu-ya-á
fish yellow-NOMZ=as 3N-be-IND
The fish is yellow.

I say normally because a minor alternative is to treat the adjectives with -sa as if they were possessions.
Ex: zóra asasa tuí gusoá
zóra asa-sa=tuí gu-so-á
fish yellow-NOMZ=COM 3N-exist-IND
The fish is yellow.

Any instances of doræ without the proper tonemarking is because Samsung won't let me do proper copypasta on this one site.

[Lao Kou]

The basic "noun1 is noun2" construction is expressed by a verbal copula stratregy where noun1 is the subject, noun2 is marked with the postposition dorǽ (roughly meaning like or as) and the copula -ya- comes last.

Ex: tákuri zefa doræ guyaá
tákuri zefa=doræ gu-ya-á
crow bird=as 3N-be-IND
Crows are birds.

I see there's a "roughly" in there, but how to handle “Bats are like birds.”?

So, covering pedicative adjectives here

Does that mean your adjectives got sole?　

[MrKrov]

I see there's a "roughly" in there, but how to handle “Bats are like birds.”?

I don't have any such relevant verbs or whatnot for such superficial similarity yet.

So, covering pedicative adjectives here

Does that mean your adjectives got sole?　

If it Eldin's an ass when he does it...

[MrKrov]

So, covering voice here.
Active voice is the default & unmarked voice.
a-lá-véní-á
1A-3FP-touch-IND
I touch her.

Reflexive voice is expressed by using co-referent agent and patient agreement. I believe this's adequate since ambiguity can only pop up when 3rd person agents and patients share gender.
a-ka-véní-á
1A-1P-touch-IND
I touch my self. (Literally I touched me.)

Reciprocal voice is expressed by using an iconic strategy (with conjunction of a repeated verb with flipped agreement).
There really ain't an alternative reciprocal strategy just yet and there probably won't be one coming.
a-lá-véní-á-ba fe-ka-véní-á
1A-3FP-touch-IND-DS 3FA-1P-touch-IND
Me and her touch each other. (Literally I touch her and she touches me.)

There isn't any other real voice phenomenon going on. I'll cover causatives later.

[MrKrov]

Lexical bit:
A trace of number exists in select body part nouns with a fossilized suffix *-pí which once upon a time marked dual nouns. Words perma-bearing this suffix include

• *awe-pí the butt
  *hi-pí arm
  *me-pí wing
  *ne-pí leg
  *purá-pí ear
  *etúri-pí cheek
  *só-pí testicle

I like how it adds a touch of depth to the etymologies while lengthening roots that'd be monosyllabic while letting me have trisyllabic+ words that aren't trisyllabic+ just because.

Up next: those causatives, I swear.