Re: Case

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> > > "Carol I Rege al Romaniei"
> >=20
> > "Carol I King of-the Romania-of"
>=20
> I didn't know "the" could be used independently in Romanian.
I think only in archaic language in this sort of construction; IIRC
that the article doesn't belong to the king, but to "Romania".

> > miluieSte-ne  pe   noi
> > have.mercy-us upon us
>=20
> Interesting.  Would miluie=9Ate-ne be a proper sentence by itself?
Yes. "Lord, have mercy", however (the usual response to prayers) is
_Doamne, miluieSte_ without the object pronoun (as it is in English).

> > The accusative is usually, perhaps always - my
> > Romanian is as rusty as a medieval nail and the book is behind my
> > mother's legacy) - expressed by _pe_ "on", so we can call it a
> > separate case, I think.
>=20
> I think I've read that it's use is similar to Spanish "a personal", that
> is, used only with certain nouns (I think the restriction is also
> "human", but I'm not sure.)
I think you're right; _am v@zut c=EEinele_ "I've seen the dog" but
_l-am v@zut pe Ion_ "I've seen John" (note the clitic before the
auxiliary; also seems to be restricted to human objects).

   Irina

            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
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