5 Word Building
Two tiers of **hint morphemes** — domain particles and semantic particles — work alongside classifiers and free compounding. Both carry vague, motivated meaning rather than strict definitions: a word built from two particles is a motivated suggestion, not a rigid definition. Speakers interpret combinations by feel. **Monosyllabicity.** Domain and semantic particles target monosyllabic output. When adapting source forms, particles use a **truncation-first strategy** — final syllables may be dropped, clusters reduced, vowels elided. This overrides the general lexical epenthesis rule (which adds a final vowel to source-final consonants other than `n/s/r`).
Section 5
Two tiers of **hint morphemes** — domain particles and semantic particles — work alongside classifiers and free compounding. Both carry vague, motivated meaning rather than strict definitions: a word built from two particles is a motivated suggestion, not a rigid definition. Speakers interpret combinations by feel. **Monosyllabicity.** Domain and semantic particles target monosyllabic output. When adapting source forms, particles use a **truncation-first strategy** — final syllables may be dropped, clusters reduced, vowels elided. This overrides the general lexical epenthesis rule (which adds a final vowel to source-final consonants other than `n/s/r`).
### 5.1 Overview Two tiers of **hint morphemes** — domain particles and semantic particles — work alongside classifiers and free compounding. Both carry vague, motivated meaning rather than strict definitions: a word built from two particles is a motivated suggestion, not a rigid definition. Speakers interpret combinations by feel. > There is no strict priority between the three systems (particles, classifiers, free compounding). ### 5.2 Notes on Particle Form **Monosyllabicity.** Domain and semantic particles target monosyllabic output. When adapting source forms, particles use a **truncation-first strategy** — final syllables may be dropped, clusters reduced, vowels elided. This overrides the general lexical epenthesis rule (which adds a final vowel to source-final consonants other than `n/s/r`). Examples: Lat *ventus* → `fen`; Lat *luna* → `run`; Gr *thymos* → `ti`; Gr *skia* → `si`. **Bisyllabic exceptions.** A particle may be bisyllabic when monosyllabic reduction would produce an ambiguous or phonotactically poor result. Current bisyllabic particles: `aku` (Water, a.ku) and `iro` (Color, i.ro). Such particles are **atomic units** — never decomposed for grammatical analysis. **Positional rule.** Domain and semantic particles operate as meaningful units only in **compound-initial position**. In compound-final position, a matching syllable is interpreted as a classifier (if in the classifier inventory) or as an ordinary root syllable. ### 5.3 Domain Particles — Tier 1 A domain particle evokes a semantic field's conceptual fingerprint. It may be used as a standalone root or as the first element of a compound. #### Elements | Particle | Domain | Implied feel | Source | |----------|------------|----------------------------------------|--------------| | `aku` | Water | fluid, serene, dissolving, yielding | Lat *aqua* | | `hi` | Fire | intense, consuming, bright, energising | Jp *hi* | | `fen` | Air / wind | light, invisible, pervasive, mobile | Lat *ventus* |