Zompist Bboard Again

Richard W wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 4:07 pm

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 4:52 am What's the purpose of the 2nd person inanimate forms? How often do your people talk to inanimate things?

That probably depends on whether they distinguish animate and inanimate fire. In English, it's quite common for people to scold, threaten or plead with inanimate objects. Would vehicles be animate or inanimate?

Yes, but it's not common in English for inanimate objects to scold, threaten, or plead with people.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 1:49 pm Tis true, but I personally like the idea of seemingly animate nouns that are grammatically inanimate myself. If one insists on having 2nd neuter pronouns, though, I would personally just derive them from one of the preexisting sets of 2nd person pronouns or even from, say, the 3rd neuter pronouns.

Well, if the original distinction was animate-inanimate then the pronouns already exist and the innovated pronouns are the masculine (or feminine) I could consider abstract organizations of people like countries, cities, governments, armies, etc. as "inanimate"

Ḫē arrālādas warraḫas, ḳebbam wasḫissam ṭananti
"O great army-INAN, your-INAN king demands your-INAN fealty."

The collective nouns are a significant member of the inanimate/neuter gender class:
arrūsāḫas "gathering of the faithful" (< wasāḫum "faithful one")
arrālādas "army" (< alādim "warrior")
arraḫzāzas "cavalry" (< ḫazāzim "horserider")
arrēğētas "fleet of ships" (< eğētum "sailor")
arralmābas "people, tribe, ethnic group" (< lumbum "person, human")
arramğādas "government, kingdom, empire" (< mağādum "governor, lord")
arraḳbābas "king and queen together, dynasty" (< ḳebbum "ruler")

Travis B. wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 4:26 pm Yes, but it's not common in English for inanimate objects to scold, threaten, or plead with people.

In some cultures, inscriptions on objects state their origin or purpose in the first person. That was unusual in English. However, Ahzoh has found a better reason for formal inanimates in the first and second persons.