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From: brg@netcom.com (Bruce R. Gilson)
Subject: Re: Naturalismo e schematicismo, un problema in linguas auxiliar
Message-ID: <brgE2uGs2.JJ@netcom.com>
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References: <57p39d$qa1@oden.abc.se> <850668804snz@vision25.demon.co.uk> <brgE2HCBA.6C3@netcom.com> <AEE2BF5A966877C9F@i2-51.islandnet.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 02:12:02 GMT
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In article <AEE2BF5A966877C9F@i2-51.islandnet.com>,
Chris Burd <cburd@islandnet.com> wrote:
>In article <brgE2HCBA.6C3@netcom.com>,
>brg@netcom.com (Bruce R. Gilson) wrote:
>
>>In article <850668804snz@vision25.demon.co.uk>,
>>Phil Hunt <phil@vision25.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>>>Why -itate and not -ita or -iti or -ite? What natlang uses -itate 
>>>(Romanian?). 
>
>>Why -itate rather than -ita? Because I need an -e ending. Remember, I am
>>regularizing the rule that ALL nouns end in -e (with the exceptions of -um
>>for certain abstract nouns, but there's a special rule for that which I'm not
>>going into here) unless they are gender-specific. -ita would imply femaleness
>>and I don't think that's appropriate. -ite (used in French) might be acceptable
>>but -itate is closer to the Sp. -idad and German -itaet, and Spanish + German
>>collectively carry more weight than French, I think.
>
>Surely -itate is a lot of overhead for a fairly simple transformation
>(adj. --> abstract noun). Have you considered -ie (<Latin/Greek -ia) or is
>it already spoken for? Perhaps there's room for a differentiation, e.g.,
>
>  grandie     largeness
>  granditate  size, degree of largeness
>
>Or maybe that distinction is unstable or uninteresting.
>
>Alternatively, you could append Jesperson's abstract ending -um to the 
>adjectival marker -i:
>
> grandium
>
>-ium is one of Latin ancestors of French/German -ie and En -y, as you
>undoubtedly know.

I think the -itate ending is more recognizable than your alternatives: given
E -ity, F -ite', Sp -idad, P -idade, G -itaet, It ita`, the idea of resembling
the most of these really seems to give -itate as the best choice.

>P.S. Does Neonovial mark the difference between epicene (gender-
>indifferent, animate) and neuter?

In nouns, no, as I fail to see an example of a situation where it is
necessary (except perhaps if you considee this the main distinction
between angle = Englishman/woman and anglum = English language; I
consider there to be an abstract vs. concrete distinction as well as
an epicene/neuter distinction). In the pronouns, there is still some
question. This gets into one of the few areas where we have not reached
a consensus, and I cannot answer yet for that reason.

>
>
>

                                Bruce R. Gilson
                                email: brg@netcom.com
                                IRC: EZ-as-pi
                                WWW: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3141
                                (for language stuff: add /langpage.html)
