Re: Person marking on nouns?
From: | Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, February 25, 2004, 19:54 |
I've heard of (natural) languages where women use
different words than men (there are words reserved to
men, and other to women), but I can't remember where
it was. My memory seems to get weary. Any one for help
?
--- "M. Astrand" <ysimiss@...> wrote:
> Estel Telcontar wrote:
> >
> >I got thinking recently about wat if there wer a
> language that markt
> >person on nouns, indicating the person-ness of who
> or what it referd
> >to.
> >
> -snip-
> >
> >Anyone know ov eny langwages, real or con, that do
> enything like this?
>
> According to a book I'm reading, Mordvin (a Uralic
> language or two spoken
> in Russia) nouns can take not only a person, but
> also a tense marking. It
> gives the following examples (c = s-hacek):
>
> kand-tano
> take-1PL
> "We take."
>
> ava-tano
> woman-1PL
> "We are women."
>
> oc-so-tano
> town-INESSIVE-1PL
> "We are in a town."
>
> oc-so-l'-in'
> town-INE-PRETERITE-1SG
> "I was in a town."
>
> kudo-so-nzo-l'-in'
> house-INE-3S&POSS-PRET-1SG
> "I was in his house."
>
>
> Disclaimer: I don't know anything about Mordvin.
>
>
> - M. Astrand
=====
Philippe Caquant
"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
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