Language Log

"In all cases by a possible combination of any of the above"

I'd like think that Trevor was right when he wrote that

I sometimes suspect that English is so popular (and so strongly associated with ideologies of freedom) not because of its status as the world's primary language of intercommunal transaction but simply because it is such a delightful chaos.

However, some contrary evidence is provided by the failure of the Nilotic language Nuer to become more popular.

According to the sketch of Nuer grammar in the now-online Nuer Project Field Notes, nouns have four cases and two numbers, and "[i]t is difficult to anticipate what the various case forms will be due to the extravagance in noun classes. It appears that the majority of nouns each form a class in themselves".

The sketch identifies the "possibilities of case identification" as follows, indicating that none of these these subregularities outnumbers its exceptions:

1. In genitive singular by the suffix -kä or -ä.
2. In nominative, genitive and locative plural by the suffix -ni.
3. In nominative plural by a complete word change.
4. In all cases by a possible change of medial vowel to any of 3 lengths.
5. In all cases by a possible change of the stem vowel.
6. In all cases by a possible change of medial vowel and final consonant.
7. In all cases by a possible change of tone.
8. In all cases by a possible combination of any of the above.

The sketch provides a table of sample forms, which are charmingly identified as "some poignant examples".

Verbs are similarly idiosyncratic: "the possibility of stem changes in one verb are numerous. The difficulty is that they follow no distinct and easily grasped pattern."

The Nuer (or Naath as they call themselves) have suffered greatly from the genocidal conflict in southern Sudan, which alas is different from the recently-reported genocidal conflict in western Sudan.

[link to online Nuer materials provided by Language Hat]

Posted by Mark Liberman at June 23, 2004 09:10 AM