> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of John Cowan
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 11:41 AM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: Melville and cases
> Patrick Dunn wrote:
>
> > I was just reading Moby Dick (and enjoying it immensely) when I noticed
> > something about Queequeg's dialect of English: He marks the accusative
> > case almost invariably with "him".
> >
> > E.g. in chapter 66, Queequeg says, "Queequeg no care what god made him
> > shark." I could see how this could become a case marker: shark (nom.)
> > imshark (acc.)
>
> IIRC, South Seas pidgins use -im to mark transitivity of verbs, so
> the reading is "god make-im shark" (the use of "made" is surely
> contamination from Standard English, possibly Queequeg's but
> more likely Melville's).
Ah! Is that somehow related to the "-um" that people sometimes add to words
to "imitate" Native American speech? (E.g. "Me smokum peace pipe")
Eric Christopherson
raccoon@elknet.net