Re: Welsh - Verb-Nouns

Christopher Bates wrote:

> It is true that welsh has more than one true verb, but not thousands.
No, Welsh does indeed have thousands of verbs, just like every European
language (well, every one I've ever seen, anyway). And they can and do
inflect for tense, person, and number.

> The main one of course is the various forms of bod...
I'm not sure what you mean by "the main one". The verb bod does, of course,
appear very frequently, since it is used as an auxilliary.

> the "verb-nouns" I would not count as true verbs... although that's just
my opinion. :)

Why not? They're a verbal form just like any other. That's like saying that
English verb forms ending in -ing aren't true verbs. Or that, say,
infinitives in a Romance language aren't true verbs.

> The reason is that all the verb-nouns are used in conjunction with another
> verb
Well, a verbal noun is a form which means, basically "the act of ...ing". So
yes, they will usually appear either with the verb "to be" as an auxilliary
(i.e. "I am/was/will be/etc. [engaged in the act of] doing XYZ", just like
English) or as the subject or object of a sentence. But I fail to see how
this makes them not "true verbs".

> (and must be marked when they are fulfilling the role of a verb).
I don't understand what that means.

> That is actually what I was doing with my last conlang mainly... it
> combined ideas from several language I find interesting, like Welsh,
> Tagalog, and a few others.
Wow... Welsh and Tagalog! That's an interesting combination! I'd be curious
to see the result of that. :)

Regards,

Thomas

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