Polysynthetic Notes

Last Edited: 2006.Dec.23 Sat

I'm probably scrapping the current affix system of the polysynthetic conlang. I'm working on a new system. The current system uses suffixes for all arguments and distinguishes extended plurals from limited plurals. The new system moves the first argument to prefix position (nounstems will use prefixes for possessors and determiners; the possessors will have the same origin as the first argument prefixes) and distinguishes only singular and plural number. It still uses a direct/inverse system (nounstems will use a different inverse marker, probably a suffix). It now uses a suffix to distinguish adverbial and adjectival forms from verbal forms. These preempt the second argument except that (a) for monovalent verbstems and reflexive divalent verbstems, the first argument is preempted and (b) there's a second adjectival suffix that preempts the third argument instead (I should note that the third argument represents the direct or secondary object). Oh, and the current umlaut system is also out too.

So far, so good; but I'm having trouble, as usual, with assigning sounds to the affixes that sound right.
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There are fewer combinations of affixes, which simplifies the documentation: only
1st argument * grammatical voice (32 prefix combinations),
3rd argument * 2nd argument (15 suffix combinations),
part of speech * 2nd argument (5 suffix combinations), and
part of speech * 3rd argument (6 suffix combinations).
This is really a lot simpler than the current system.