Zompist Bboard Again

So I thought I’d make some adjustments to Classical Salvian, and there’s something that’s been poking at me. The original system I had encoded for a combination of masculine/feminine/neuter and animate/inanimate/ethereal/miscellaneous, which is all fine and dandy except that a) I worry it conveys too much information, and b) that it feels too artificial when observed as a viewer.
Is there any language you’ve made or know of that uses double-encoding noun classes (this might not be the correct term but what can one do)? If not, how would you recommend I trim things down?

You could conflate some categories. Maybe the animate is the only one that distinguishes number, for example, and maybe inanimate doesnt distinguish either number or gender. What does the miscellaneous category encompass that isnt covered by animate/inanimate/ethereal? Whatever it is, does it need gender distinctions as well?

If you took the gender distinctions away from the ethereal and miscellaneous categories, you'd probably be within reach of some attested systems here and there ... I cant name examples, though.

If you end up sticking with the system you have now, you could still conflate forms later on in the sense of different categories sharing the same affix, even if they are distinct grammatically. For example the Latin neuter plural was mostly identical to the feminine singular.

Pedant wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:54 am So I thought I’d make some adjustments to Classical Salvian, and there’s something that’s been poking at me. The original system I had encoded for a combination of masculine/feminine/neuter and animate/inanimate/ethereal/miscellaneous, which is all fine and dandy except that a) I worry it conveys too much information, and b) that it feels too artificial when observed as a viewer.
Is there any language you’ve made or know of that uses double-encoding noun classes (this might not be the correct term but what can one do)? If not, how would you recommend I trim things down?

Among its masculine nouns (but not feminine or neuter ones), Polish distinguishes "personal" nouns (male human nouns, gods), "animate" nouns (animals, fruit, fungi, viruses, currencies like 'dollar', branded items like 'a Mercedes', 'corpse', 'ghost', 'computer', 'robot'), and "inanimate" nouns (trees, plants, most inert objects).

Pabappa wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 12:57 pm For example the Latin neuter plural was mostly identical to the feminine singular.

Only in the nominative and vocative!

I have reached a decision! It shall start with animate/inanimate and high/low distinctions, with four distinct variations of each other category (not marked for form). Sixteen in total, which I cunningly merge down to fewer and fewer categories as time goes on!
See if I can’t put up a chart to demonstrate...

i seemed to remember swahili having noun classes like this, so i checked the wiki and yes, it has a grid-like case system.