this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Constructed Languages
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Ooo, that's really cool! If it's any consonant + y, how many of these references would there be? And are there some that tend to get used more than others (e.g., maybe "dy" is what speakers tend to use for the first reference, then using others if needed)?
There are 16 consonants but "ny" is a reserved one. So practically speaking, 15 pronoun-like things. And that's the fun part. Which one a speaker picks can kind of carry a hint about it (like using "dy" when talking about "dinner" (though obviously not the English word. Just demonstrating it)). So you could see, for instance:
Alice: my mom said if I get good grades she'll buy me that cool red bike with the streamers.
Billy: aww man. my is so cool. I wish my mom would buy me by
From context, anybody hearing this conversation would probably assume "my" refers to Alice's mom and "by" refers to the bike (without having to say out again "your mom" and "that cool red bike with streamers" respectively)
That's a very creative system! What is "ny" reserved for?
It's the non-scoping reference. Positional arguments are all required, so for instance in English you could say either "I ate" or "I ate a burger". But in my conlang, if a word is defined with 3 arguments, then 3 arguments must be provided. "ny" is kind of the escape hatch for when you want to not provide an argument but the grammar requires you to. E.g. "I ate" would require you to say "ate me ny" (verb first followed by it's arguments). So if you think about filling out an expression, the audience should evaluate it like:
"ate" (ok. Somebody ate something)
"me" (ok. The eating was done by the speaker)
"ny" (ok. No value was provided so I'm left with exactly the understanding as if I had only been given the one first argument. But also, sentence complete)
It's like, filling out an expression narrows into more and more precise meaning. But "ny" gives you a way to say "I gotta provide a value here. But I don't want the scope of meaning to narrow or expand or change in shape" but while still being grammatically correct.