Here's a feature I came up with for a conlang awhile back. (Note: The speakers of this language are a race of sentient reptiles called
serulir, singular
serul; that word is from a different language than the one I'm talking about here.)
Nouns in Chehûshan always take a suffix indicating something that could be described as "the role of the object in the world":
| Suffix | Meaning |
| -d | Independent entity |
| -q | Component of a larger entity |
| -r | Authority: entity which has control over the speaker, listener, or both |
| -n | Personal property of the speaker |
| -ne | Personal property of the listener |
| -ŋa | Personal property of someone else |
| -ś | Public property (of serulir) |
| -hŋo | Alien: object relating to people of non-serul races |
The
independent role marks an entity viewed as existing in and of itself. Things usually placed in this role include:
- Individual people (both serulir and others)
- Wild animals
- Geographical features, when they are seen as not belonging to anyone
- The world itself
- The sky and things in it
The
component role marks an entity viewed as part of something else. Things usually placed in this role include:
- Body parts
- Parts of a machine
- One side (top, front, etc.) of any object
- Sometimes people, when emphasizing their role as part of a larger organization (e.g. the military, or society itself): an example of this use is in the full name of the country of Chehûsh, Cudnuqronoseś kri-Hnaq Houkylho ce-Hûś where the word hna "serul" is placed in the component role to emphasize each citizen's role as a member of society, rather than an individual
The
authority role marks an entity which has some sort of control over the speaker, listener, or both. Examples include the government or other authorities among people; but may also be used for abstract things like the law, or even laws of physics. This role has some characteristics of an honorific: it would be seen as quite rude to address or mention one of your superiors without using an
-r at the end of their name, and even treasonous to speak of the government without doing so.
The various
personal property roles mark items possessed by individual serulir, including:
- One's various personal possessions
- One's own home
- Any domestic animals one may own
Personal property roles do
not include parts of one's body (which use the component role instead), or relatives, friends, or other people connected to the person (which use the independent or authority role as appropriate).
The
public property role is for items viewed as belonging collectively to all serulir, or at least all serulir of Chehûsh or of a particular town or city. These include:
- Public facilities, such as roads, public buildings, and public services
- The government
- The country itself
- The land the country is built on, and various geographical features in it: an example of this is also in the name Chehûsh or ce-Hûś, which could be translated "by our (the people's, collectively) sea"
The
alien role is for things relating to people of races other than the serulir. It is used in place of every other role except the independent one when speaking of things belonging to other races: that is, individual nemal or thosul are placed in the independent role like serulir, but a nema's body parts are placed in the alien role rather than the component role, a thosu's possessions are placed in the alien role rather than a personal property role, and the thosul's land is placed in the alien role rather than the public property role.
I'm wondering if any natlang has anything like this, and if the feature has a name? Some of the roles are similar to possession markers or honorifics, of course, but I haven't heard of anything that does
all the things this feature does.
