Proto-Galach Grammar
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Proto-Galach Grammar
(Summary placeholder!)
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Nouns
How about we begin bashing out some actual details by listing how English and Russian are similar and how they are different?
Nouns
Both languages change the form of nouns to indicate number and grammatical role in a sentence (subject vs object, etc). The English system is much simpler than the Russian: two numbers (singular & plural) and two "cases" (nominative/accusative (subject/object form) & genitive (possessive form)) VS two numbers and six cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental and prepositional). (NB. English pronouns also have a distinct accusative/object form.)
I propose that initially we keep the Russian singular vs plural forms and dispense with (most of?) the case distinctions (except in set phrases) and the majority of irregular forms from both languages (choosing one or the other as the new base form?).
The distinctions in English nouns I mention above are really made only in writing:
How likely do you think it would be for English speakers to pick up gentive case markers from Russian? (I'm thinking, not very.) Or an accusative case marker? (More likely, given the precedent of English pronouns?)
More likely we'll end up with plural marker -s slugging it out with -i/ih, -a/ya.
Nouns
Both languages change the form of nouns to indicate number and grammatical role in a sentence (subject vs object, etc). The English system is much simpler than the Russian: two numbers (singular & plural) and two "cases" (nominative/accusative (subject/object form) & genitive (possessive form)) VS two numbers and six cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental and prepositional). (NB. English pronouns also have a distinct accusative/object form.)
I propose that initially we keep the Russian singular vs plural forms and dispense with (most of?) the case distinctions (except in set phrases) and the majority of irregular forms from both languages (choosing one or the other as the new base form?).
The distinctions in English nouns I mention above are really made only in writing:
Code: Select all
Singular Plural
Nom. kaet (cat) kaets (cats)
Gen. kaets (cat's) kaets (cats')
More likely we'll end up with plural marker -s slugging it out with -i/ih, -a/ya.
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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Personal Pronouns
Nom/Subject forms:
(NB. Russians will pronounce dhey as dey?)
Any suggestions here? 75/25 dice?
Gen/Possessive forms:
(NB. that in English these are really determiners, of the same class as the and a. The Russian pronouns have genitive forms, but here I have listed the possessive adjectives, masculine, feminine, neuter and plural nominative forms. The third person forms are invariant.)
Here, may or maya seems a logical compromise for the 1st person singular. No thoughts on the others at the moment.
Finally, Acc/Object forms:
(Again, dhem > dem for Russian speakers?)
(It occurs to me that we also need to work out the pronunciation rules for how each group of (native) speakers will say the words from the other language...add another thing to the list. )
Thoughts on nouns and pronouns?
Code: Select all
English Russian
Sing.
1 ay yaa
2 yuw tih
3 hiy on
shiy anaa
it ano
Plur.
1 wiy mih
2 yuw vih
3 dhey anyi
Any suggestions here? 75/25 dice?
Gen/Possessive forms:
Code: Select all
English Russian
Sing.
1 may moy/mayaa/mayo/maiy
2 yor/yuwr? tvoy/tvayaa/tvayo/tvaiy
3 hiz yivo
her yiyo
its yivo
Plur.
1 aur/aar naash/naasha/naashih/naashi
2 yor/yuwr vaash/vaasha/vaashih/vaashi
3 dheyr yikh
Here, may or maya seems a logical compromise for the 1st person singular. No thoughts on the others at the moment.
Finally, Acc/Object forms:
Code: Select all
English Russian
Sing.
1 miy myinyaa
2 yuw tyibyaa
3 him (n)yivo
hur (n)yiyo
it (n)yivo
Plur.
1 as naas
2 yuw vaas
3 dhem (n)yikh
(It occurs to me that we also need to work out the pronunciation rules for how each group of (native) speakers will say the words from the other language...add another thing to the list. )
Thoughts on nouns and pronouns?
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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- SandChigger
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Yep.
I got sidetracked, though, doing grades and other paperwork. Decided to get serious and ordered some new things on language change and mixed langs; arrived at the office yesterday but I was too fooooked to bring them home (left the office after 11:30 PM; the half moon, reflecting on the Pacific, was purdy, though, during the drive ), will do so tomorrow.
Still trying to figure out what to do with the verbs....
I got sidetracked, though, doing grades and other paperwork. Decided to get serious and ordered some new things on language change and mixed langs; arrived at the office yesterday but I was too fooooked to bring them home (left the office after 11:30 PM; the half moon, reflecting on the Pacific, was purdy, though, during the drive ), will do so tomorrow.
Still trying to figure out what to do with the verbs....
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
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Re: Proto-Galach Grammar
Found these on the web recently:
http://pt.conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Galach
http://library.conlang.org/books/fiction.html
Aw, Hell. Just see here:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp& ... 5bf9d43a8f
http://pt.conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Galach
http://library.conlang.org/books/fiction.html
Aw, Hell. Just see here:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp& ... 5bf9d43a8f
Something is about to happen, Hal. Something wonderful!
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
-James C. Harwood, Science Fiction Writer, Straight (March 5, 1956 - May 25, 2010)
The Omphalos Umbrella Page
- SandChigger
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Re: Proto-Galach Grammar
Yeah ... the Na'vi stuff has kinda inspired me to get some stuff up on the website.
(I haven't posted anything new there since June, but my page consistently comes up third in the Google results. )
(I haven't posted anything new there since June, but my page consistently comes up third in the Google results. )
"Chancho...sometimes when you are a man...you wear stretchy pants...in your room...alone."
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.
"Politics is never simple, like the sand chigger of Arrakis, one is rarely truly free of its bite."
Arrakeen is an unawakened ghola.