Re: Poetic translation (was: ULT)

On 30 May 99, at 21:22, Tom Wier wrote:

> John Cowan wrote:
>
> > Tom Wier scripsit:
> >
> > > Wouldn't that be:  "Mi farcas in vian direkcionon generalan"?
> >
> > E-o prepositions govern the nominative.
>
> IIRC, this is one of those classic exceptions to the rules.  When you mean
> "into", which is what that would be here (by default; you can have either
> directionality or location, and this would have to be directionality), you
> use the accusative, much as in Latin, German, etc.
Not so much an exception as another rule.  The -n "accusative"
ending marks either the direct object, or makes directional a
construct that would otherwise be locational.  So location
prepositions (en, sur) and direction prepositions (al, gxis) take a
nominative, but if you want to use a location preposition and give it
a directional meaning, use the -n ending on its object as well.

Mi logxas en urbo.
I live in a city.

Mi iras al urbo.
I go to a city.

Mi iras en urbon.
I go in city-TO = I go into a city.

The same -n ending works with locational adverbs like urbe = in a
city, urben = to a city.

Jim Henry III
Jim.Henry@pobox.com
http://www.pobox.com/~jim.henry/gzb/gzb.htm
*gjax zaxnq-box baxm-box goq.