Re: Positioning for emphasis

--- Joseph Fatula <joefatula@...> wrote:

> Geoff Horswood wrote:
> > Kazakh is SOV (unless you're writing poetry, when
> it
> > may bend for the sake of rhythm).  It uses an
> emphatic
> > particle positioned after the main verb (ghoi/qoi)
> >
> > It has several of these particles, actually: a
> > question-marker (ma/me/ba/be/pa/pe) and one
> expressing
> > less-direct evidentiality as well (eken).
> >
> > Geoff
> >
> >
>
> But are these really particles or in fact suffixes
> on the verb?  After
> hearing people speaking for a while, I was very
> surprised to see that
> they write a space between them, as 1) they change
> to match the vowel
> harmony / consonant type of the verb, and 2) no
> words ever come between
> the two.  But take my advice with a grain of salt,
> as honestly, men
> qazaqsha so:ylemeymin.
>
They write them as particles, the local grammarians &
teachers refer to them as particles, the
language-learning materials all call them particles...

But you're probably right.  They function like
endings.

In some dialects (eg southern Kazakhstan) they are
melded into the other endings, eg qazaqsha
so:ylemising? instead of qazaqsha so:yleysing be?

When I was learning Kazakh, my
language-grammar-analysis skills were even less than
they are now.

Geoff

=====

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