Old Skourene and copula

MUBA · Post by **MUBA** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:37 pm

Ok, I know Old Skourene doesn't really have a copula and in many cases you can do without it. I understand the example that "that is amusing" should be said as "that amuses me". I can also see that you'd say "I am a baker" would best be expressed as "I bake", for example.

But what if you want to say "Old Skourene is a conlang of Zompist"?
How'd you do that?

You could put it like "Zompist made the conlang Old Skourene"Or you could use the passive form of to make: "The conlang Old Skourene made-PASSIVE by Zompist", but these are not really the same thing.

So. How?

Post by **zompist** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:30 pm

You're on the right track-- you can just say "Zompist created Old Skourene". (Or 'devised' or 'built' or something.)

MUBA · Post by **MUBA** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:49 pm

Ok, but that puts you in the subject role instead of the language... that's not a problem?

Post by **zompist** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:59 pm

'Subject' gets a little weird in an absolutive/ergative language. Remember that the absolutive (here, "Old Skourene") comes first, and that both cases get marked on the verb. There's no passive in OS-- that really only applies to nom/acc languages.

MUBA · Post by **MUBA** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:01 pm

I forgot about that detail... ok, thank you!