Re: OFF : updated tunu grammar

i would like to apologize for that long mail : i tried to attach a long mail
to a short one but both were edited as one.

Nik a =E9crit :
>  How is {ny} pronounced?  Is it a palatal nasal, like Spanish {n~}?
> =20
yes. like indonesian "nyonya" (Ms.) or "nyanyi" (to sing).

John a =E9crit :
>  > this policy was carried out with the very convincing threat
>  > of being sentenced to be eaten whenever pronouncing an homonyme.
>
>  Gack, and I thought Qi Huangdi (the First Chinese Emperor, who ordered a
>  general burning of books) was a dreadful tyrant!  This is too much!
> =20
burning books is horrendous indeed. but tunus eat people breaking
a few listed taboos anyway. no specific problem with that one.

Ed a =E9crit :
>  Fascinating!  The Tunuans have clearly found the secret of enforcing
>  language planning: threats of cannibalism.
>
that policy proves best which combines reward and punishment -
at no public cost.

Nick a =E9crit :
>  Hmm, frightening!  :-)  And this succeeded in changing the language so
>  much so that the changes have survived past his death?
>=20
tunus keep enforcing banqueting opportunities for generations.

>  Is {c} the same as {ch} above?
> =20
yes. i use whichever. no taboo on script yet.
Charles made up the vocablist but could not decide how "ch", "ng" and "ny"
should be written. so i usually write c, ng, and ny because i pronounce
tunu c, ng and ny as their indonesian sounds [tj], [N] and [=F1].

>  Lots of reduplication here.  Fascinating.
>
i plan to claim that tunu has only 10 gram'rules.
so i had to cheat somehow, of course.
i pretend that verbal voice reduplications are no affixes :=20
paku / a-paku / pa-paku / paku-paku / apa-paku.
there are 3 specific construct affixes : nya-, -ng and -nga
and 7 syntactic tags : wa, ya, we, ye, wi, yo, yu.

next step is fallaciously claiming that tunu is isolating.
i can't think of an isolating conlang on the list yet and guaspi isn't quite=
.
i think it would be a good niche.

John a =E9crit :
>  > Tunu has an exclusive antonyme shown by prefixing nya-
> =20
>  Hmm, shades of Newspeak?  :-)
> =20
oh ! i hadn't considered that.
"=F1-" just feels negative/reversive/opposite to me.
like kan- in vorlin or else (can't remember in lojban).

> This reminds me of what I have read about Proto-Indo-European -- that
>  certain sounds (the ones traditionally reconstructed as /b/ /d/ /g/)
>  do not occur in affixes, only in roots.  This bizarre restriction is
>  one of the arguments for reconstrucing that series as /p'/ /t'/ /k'/
>  instead (ejectives); apparently in languages with ejectives, as highly
>  marked consonants they tend not to appear in affixes.
> =20
interesting and apparently very complex.
in indonesian the schwa only occurs in prefixes.
AFMC, i use that to ensure tunu parseability despite its poor phonology.
did anybody else do that with his own conlang ?

mathias