Re: Subordination

> On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, dunn patrick w wrote:
>
> What are some of the ways you indicate subordinate clauses in your
> languages?
>
Subordination is very "formal" in Teonaht.  _Ihai_functions as a kind of
relative,  a place-holder for the subject or object in question,
and subordinate clauses follow main clauses with a mirroring of
syntactical
order.  Since the main clause almost invariably ends with the verb, the
subordinate clause will *begin* with the verb, in proper and improper
relative
clauses:

Il beto nelry ke ytonakel ihai il mabbamba.
"The boy did-I  see kick-did that-one the ball."
I saw the boy who kicked the ball.

Il beto nelry ke ebral-y nihain vyko.
"The boy did-I see said-did-I to-that-one hello."
I saw the boy whom I said hello to.

These work in noun clauses as well:

edder elry den prerry kwe tobre
"to him did-I-tell know-I what."
I told him what I know."

And in adverbial and adjectival clauses:

Il tan yggarne uafla ihhai
the bird (P) I like flies that-one.
"I like the bird that flies."

Laz il ykwa dehsanry
"White the horse want I."
"The horse I want is white."

However, there are other constructions in Teonaht, copped no doubt
from my early encounters with German, where the relative phrase takes
the place of an adjective:

Il gwenda bov la epan yrravo.
The girl (P) blue-her-eyes I love
"I love the girl whose eyes are blue."

(Actually, I think Ger. would say:
I love the blue her eyes girl, or some such thing.  I've forgotten
so much of it; my memory of its dreadful beauties were restimulated
after having read Twain's hilarious on-line essay about it.

These are constructions in both Welsh and Hebrew, so you can see
that I just HAD to copy them into Teonaht.  These very examples
were given to me in my Welsh classes in Berkeley.

Le entom vyrm lo glehd il beto elhai htesa.
The monster (A) green-his-blood the boy (P) did-he chase.
The monster with the green blood chased the boy.

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