Re: Ethnologue
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, February 9, 2003, 21:05 |
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En réponse à Jean-François Colson <bn130627@...>:
>
> Esperanto has a genitive indeed, but only for 5 words:
> - ies, genitive of iu;
> - kies, genitive of kiu;
> - ties, genitive of tiu;
> - cies, genitive of ciu;
> - nenies, genitive of neniu.
>
True, but is it worth mentioning that Esperanto has a genitive for only five
words? :))
> Err... Isn't "Zamenhofa" the genitive of "Zamenhof"?
As much as "Parisian" is the genitive of "Paris". -a marks adjectives.
So "Zamenhofa" is an adjective derived from the noun "Zamenhof" (you can
translate it as "Zamenhofian". Some languages do have an adjectival form
instead of a genitive, but in the case of Esperanto the two things have a
slightly different meaning.
"La Zamenhofa
> lingvouzo" is the same than "La lingvouzo DE Zamenhof".
>
Not really. "la Zamenhofa lingvouzo" means "the use of the language as Zamenhof
did" while "la lingvouzo de Zamenhof" means "Zamenhof's use of the language".
Only the second is a proper possession. The first refers to the use of the
language of anyone, but in a Zamenhofian fashion. The difference is small but
meaningful.
Christophe.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.
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