My conlang so far: Halvian

[Mentilliath]

Thanks

And I know, right? I love the dual. Such an underrated number. I hate how it often disappears. Why do languages form a dual number only to have it become marginal and then ultimately disappear?

[Koko]

Maybe it disappears because not many things outside of body parts require it? I've made the dual a thing that's very practical: many foods come in pairs, many words whose English equivalents refer to two (couple, both, etc…) are inherently in the dual number, e più.

Have you done something similar?

Btw, I like how your a declension is very thematic.

[Mentilliath]

I can see why it disappears, but I wonder why it arises in the first place, if its fate is often to disappear.

I've done something similar with the dual in Halvian, yeah. Words like "both" and "two" are inherently dual (like they are in Latin, the last vestige of the dual in that language), and the dual is used for words like "eyes", "ears", "legs", etc.

And yeah, this declension is very thematic. There are 6 declensions. 5 of them are thematic (stems based on the 5 vowels), and one of them is the athematic "miscellaneous" declension, which is also one of the biggest haha. So we'll get to that one

[Koko]

I can see why it disappears, but I wonder why it arises in the first place, if its fate is often to disappear.

Hmm, when it did exist (as it still does in a small handful of languages), I suppose more things came in two? I mean, the word for door in many PIE's descendants have forms reminiscent of its dual, so maybe as less things were paired, so was disappearing the dual.

I've done something similar with the dual in Halvian, yeah. Words like "both" and "two" are inherently dual (like they are in Latin, the last vestige of the dual in that language), and the dual is used for words like "eyes", "ears", "legs", etc.

Latin did something similar? And there was thinking I was being unique >.< I feel as Itikar feels! That's why I like Czech: the dual is still apparent in a num er of words and the adjective "two."

And yeah, this declension is very thematic. There are 6 declensions. 5 of them are thematic (stems based on the 5 vowels), and one of them is the athematic "miscellaneous" declension, which is also one of the biggest haha. So we'll get to that one

Can't wait! Do your declensions usually have an assigned gender? I have various declensions for the sake of variety.

[Mentilliath]

I read about that "door" thing; that was interesting. Definitely seems to indicate doors were twos.

Slovenian I believe as well has a productive dual. I think as far as IE goes, only a few Slavic languages have duals that are still used.

My declensions don't really have assigned gender, but you can always tell a noun's gender by its nominative and/or genitive form. The declensions have gender tendencies, i.e. most 1st declension nouns are feminine, most 5th declension nouns are masculine. But say, if it is a masculine 1st declension or a neuter 5th declension, you'll be able to tell by the nominative. It isn't like in Latin where "classis" is feminine and "civis" is masculine and the only way to tell the gender is to memorize it.

[Koko]

Does -s generally indicate a masculine nominative of declensions not the fifth?

[Mentilliath]

-s is a marker of masculine, yeah. -s as an ending in the nominative singular always means masculine.

It can get confusing with the athematics because dos ('flower') is feminine, but it's not do + -s (which would make it masculine), it's dos + ∅.