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Re: OT: Citation forms of words, and the cynicism required to study Georgian [was Re: sorta OT: cases: please help...]

From:Pavel Iosad <pavel_iosad@...>
Date:Sunday, December 9, 2001, 17:50
S'mae,
Ysgrifennodd Thomas R. Wier:
> > > In a dictionary, you don't find entries listed in the dative or > > > genitive or locative or whatever other case. > > > > The 'citation form' isn't always universal anyway. You can just > > look at verbs for this: do we list under the infinitive (like > > Spanish, English), first person present (Latin, Greek), or, oh, > > third person past (Semitic, I think)? > > Indeed. In Georgian, verbs aren't even listed in dictionaries as > verbs, but rather under the so-called "mostar" form, which is a > verbal noun:
Same for Welsh - they don't have infinitives, but rather verbnouns. It looks weird when you're told Welsh is VSO, and then you're told "to study" is _dysgu_, and then you something like "dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg" for "I study Welsh". LOL :-) And speaking of Georgian, today was the second round of the Moscow Linguistic Olympics, and we had a Georgian problem there - it was hideous! What kind of prefixes are these gv- and m-, and a root like _akvs_! Ouch! Hwyl, Pavel

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Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>