Re: OT: sorta OT: cases: please help...
| From: | Muke Tever <alrivera@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, December 7, 2001, 22:42 |
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From: "Yoon Ha Lee" <yl112@...>
>And why *are* copulas highly irregular in those languages where they are?
>I'm not completely convinced, offhand, by "common word" status; is there
>some other or additional underlying reason, or is it all buried in the
>mists of time? :-) Anyone?
Well, for Indo-European languages, the main verb was *es-, which was all of:
short (not a full CVC root),
had /s/ (which was treated brutally in daughter langs)
athematic (ISTR..)
plus suppletive in many descendants, but that's already been mentioned.
*Muke!
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