Re: Phenomena

On Thu, 2 Mar 2000 11:37:32 -0500 John Cowan <jcowan@...>
writes:
> Matt Pearson wrote:
> > In Tokana I use the verb "kahpa" = "to descend":
> >    Kahpa suh    "It's raining (lit. rain is coming down)"
> >    Kahpa ise    "It's snowing (lit. snow is coming down)"
> >    Kahpa mohi   "It's foggy (lit. cloud is coming down)"
> >    Kahpa esie   "It's misty (lit. mist is coming down)"
> Lojban does that too, although rain is the default.  "carvi" = "[It]
> rains"
> most probably refers to water; for snow we say "snow rains".  The
> full
> place structure is "x1 rains on x2 from x3", where "the ground"
> and "the sky" are probably the typical (and unexpressed) values
> of x2 and x3.
> --
> Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan
> <jcowan@...>
.

I'm not sure what to do in Rokbeigalmki, i have two possibilities:
"it's raining" can be:

uza-jaariht  ~  (it)(present-immediate)-(rain)

or just

a-jaariht  ~  (present-immediate)-(rain)

Normally, verbs need a true subject-tense complex in order to be
considered conjugated verbs and not nouns.
There's one exception, the words tii/kii/nii, which are the equivalents
of positive, possible, and negative versions of Spanish _hay_ or Hebrew
_yeish_, "there is/are".  To say "there were/was" you just add the
past-tense vowel to the beginning: u-tii.

So i'm not sure whether to make these kind of subjectless weather verbs
irregular, like "tii/kii/nii", or make them regular verbs with an "it"
subject.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom."