tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 06 19:53:00 2003

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a better prefix chart

MorphemeAddict ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol taghwI']

I see that the prefix chart has been copied once again without change from 
TKD.  This time it's in the latest issue (v12 n3) of HolQeD.  It still looks a 
random selection of prefixes, no rhyme or reason anywhere.  

The prefixes have three parameters (four when you count imperative mood):  
1) subject vs. object
2) number (singular, plural)
3) person (1st, 2nd, 3rd and, for objects, also 'none')

The prefix chart in TKD arranges the prefixes by subject vs. object, then 
orders them by number then person.  This totally obscures the regularities 
inherent in the system of prefixes.  If the chart is rearranged so that it is based 
on person then number, we see a lot of order and regularity (and exceptions 
become obvious):

(Read subject down the left, object across the top. "He" and "him" represent 
"he/she/it" and "him/her/it", and "y'all" represents "you (plural)")

       none          me  us         you y'all           him them
I     jI               -     -         qa   Sa              vI    vI
we  ma               -     -         pI  re               wI   DI

you   bI             cho ju        -     -                 Da  Da
y'all  Su            tu   che       -    -                 bo  bo

you!  yI             HI  gho       -    -                 yI   tI
y'all!  pe            HI  gho      -    -                  yI   tI

he     0              mu  nu         Du  lI               0    0
they   0             mu  nu         nI   lI              lu    0

From this arrangement it's now obvious that 1st person does not occur as both 
subject and object at the same time.  Such prefixes would be reflexive, and 
there is a suffix for reflexive objects.  The same is true of 2nd person.  In 
the 3rd person we see a difference:  the object can be different from the 
subject, and so it is reflected in the prefixes (as "0"), which are all next to 
each other.  And we see immediately too, that the "they-him" case is different 
from the other 3rd person subject-objects: it is "lu" instead of "0".

Many of the prefixes are the same in adjacent positions:   "vI" is "I-him" as 
well as "I-them", or 1sg-3sg/3pl or just 1sg-3.  "Da" is 2sg-3.  "HI" is 
2!-1sg.  The pairings, where prefixes have the same form, are adjacent to each 
other, making it obvious that such-and-such is both singular and plural, or that 
all of the 1-2 prefixes are different, as well as all the 2-1 prefixes.  There 
is a lot of symmetry along the diagonal too (counting both forms of "you" 
(imperative and non-imperative) as one).

lay'tel SIvten

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