Re : Re: Mandatory possession

Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 10/10/99 01:14:25  , Pablo a =E9crit :

> > note also that "my" can be expressed with "i have" :
>  > ku-kor ku-nupe ku-nukar rusuy
>  > i-have i-brother i-see want
>  > i want to see my brother
> =20
>  Question: is Ainu regularly SOV,
more SOV a lang, you can't find it - except if you consider
that suffixing prostuff to verb dismisses.

and does it place subordinate
>  clauses before their heads, like Japanese?
yes. except that very often colloquial japanese replaces subordinate clauses
with "strung main clauses" before or after the "main" clause, preferably
according to chronoexperience like
"that stupid guy i saw yesterday was cooking rabbit"
would become :
"that guy, he's stupid, OK ?, yesterday i him saw, right ?, he rabbit cookin=
g=20
was."

That would account
>  for 'I have' meaning 'my'; 'my brother' would be 'the brother
>  that I have'.
it is. Ainu reminds me of old japanese that still did not need use clitics b=
ut
had a "subordinating verbal form".

>  Do you know why _rusuy_ isn't prefixed <ku-> too? Is it a real
>  verb, or something else (like an invariable clitic)?
> =20
i fancy it is because ainu is really SOV :

ku nukar rusuy
ku =3D S =3D me
nukar =3D O =3D seeing
rusuy =3D V =3D to want

do "nupe" is O of "nukar" which is O of "rusuy".
like in english : want (V) to see (O) brother (O).
nevermind : just kidding.

>  On a personal note, I really like this 'possessive subordinate'
>  stuff. I'm using it on a new language right now...
> =20
japanese does that a lot, but not with possession.
for instance, all "-na" nominal adjectives derive from "-de aru" > "-da" >=20
"-na"
or from "(-ni) naru" > "-na".
and you still can see that now : "X-da noni" (=3D "although X") becomes "-na=
=20
noni".
so these famous so-called "nominal adjectives" are truely verbal adjectives=20
;-).


Tunu makes possessive through a very elaborate and difficult process called
"PTWHATOAI" for "put this word here and that other one after it" :

example :

moko =3D house
moto =3D man

moko moto =3D man's house.

nifty, eh ?

mathias