Re: do be do be do

On Mon, 24 May 1999 17:14:23 -0500 Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes:
>Fabian wrote:
>> My French lecturer recently said that every language needs teh verbs
>be and
>> have.
>Hmmm, that's odd.  Why would he say that?  I can think of languages
>without a verb for "to be" (such as Russian in the present) and those
>without "to have" (Irish [Celtic in general?], Hebrew (I think))
>
>--
>AIM Screen-name: NikTailor
Yup, Hebrew uses a construction meaning "there is for whoever..."

yeish li hhaveir
there-is + for me + friend

"i have a friend"

"yeish" is like _hay_ in Spanish, except that in other tenses it turns
into _HYH_, "to be", while _hay_ is just a form of _haber_.  Although
both of them don't change for number.

In Modern Israeli Hebrew, they're a little weird and they use the
direct-object-marker _et_ when the thing which is "for" you has a
definite article, even though there's no verb in the sentence at all.

yeish li kesef
"hay" for-me money = "i have money"

yeish li et hakesef
"hay" for-me [obj] the-money = "i have the money"


-Stephen (Steg)

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