On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, taliesin the storyteller wrote:
> I'm currently struggling with understanding the rel. cl. of my lang
> correctly, and thought I'd look at how it works in other langs.
> Unfortunately, it seems that relative clauses is part of the grammar
> that is 'not yet online' :) Does it change too often?
>
> Anyways, how -do- you do relative clauses in your conlangs? Here's
> something for y'all to translate... (substitute words when necessary...)
Hatasoe has a useful little particle "ni" that's a relativizer, both
subjective and objective (and therefore also possessive).
>
> rel. subject:
> "The dog that saw the cat was large."
peshuo ni-du-hivia esho se-saba
Dog which-it-see cat it-is.big
>
> rel. object:
> "The dog saw the cat that killed the mouse."
peshuo se-du-hivia esho ni-lo-tatea sipue
dog it-it-see cat which-it-kill mouse.
>
> nested:
> "The dog that saw the cat that killed the mouse that was large drank
> from the river that John put the poison in."
peshuo ni-du-hivia esho ni-lo-tatea sipue ni-saba se-patua katoko pazhue;
dog which.it.see cat which.it.kill mouse which-is.large it.drink out.of
water
ni John se-no-kasea oa-kalakape pizue ko.
which John he.them.put pl.poisons into it.
> rel. indirect object:
> "The dog that John gave the ball to."
John se-lo-omaka poloe paza-ni peshuo
John he-it-give ball to-which dog.
> "The cat that the dog was bigger than."
esho ni peshuo se-sasaba lan-ni.
cat which dog it-is.bigger than-which
(I'm not sure about this one; it makes my head hurt)
> rel. posessor:
> "The dog saw the cat whose teeth were huge."
peshuo se-du-hivia esho ni kateshea-ni ran-esabea.
Dog it.it.see cat which tooth(cons.)-whose they-be.huge.
Some of these examples are contrived. Hatasoe just doesn't handle
subordination all that well or all that frequently.