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Re: Adjectives, Particles, and This ( etc ), and Conjunctions...

From:Pavel A. da Mek <pavel.adamek@...>
Date:Friday, January 19, 2001, 15:56
Tommie L Powell  wrote:

>The Czechs have 7 demonstratives, all of which are perhaps best >translated into English as "that". (Maybe they figure that, if >something's close enough to touch, there's no need to indicate where it >is, so there's no need for a word that means "this".) > >3 of the demonstratives (TEN, TENTO, TOTENTO) are for things in the near >distance (spatially or psychologically) and 3 (TAM, TAMTO, TOTAMTO) are >for more-distant things. > >TENTO isn't used unless TEN has already been used in the conversation to >refer to another item of the same sort, TAMTO isn't used unless TAM has >already been used in the conversation to refer to another item of the >same sort, TOTENTO isn't used unless TEN and TENTO have already been used >in the conversation to refer to other items of the same sort, and TOTAMTO >isn't used unless TAM and TAMTO have already been used in the >conversation to refer to other items of the same sort. > >So, in Czech, it's possible to differentiate among up to 6 items of the >same sort (be they rocks or men or whatever) by just using those 6 >demonstratives. > >Their 7th demonstrative is TO, but no sense of distance is attached to it >(and it isn't used for differentiating among items of the same sort).
It is interesting system of demonstratives, but sorry, I must say that there is no such 6-way system in Czech language. The real list of Czech pronouns and related adverbs: "the": TEN (m.), TA (f.), TO (n.) "this": TENTO (m.), TATO (f.), TOTO (n.); "here" TU, TADY, ZDE; "to here" SEM "that": TAMTEN (m.), TAMTA (f.), TAMTO (n.); "there": TAM; "to there" TAM "yon": ONEN (m.), ONA (f.), ONO (n.); "yonder" ONDE; "to yonder" ONAM "he": ON, "she" ONA (f.), "it" ONO (n.) "thou": TY "who": KDO, "what" CO; "where" KDE, "to where" KAM, "when" KDY "nobody": NIKDO, "nothing" NIC; "nowhere" NIKDE, "to nowhere" NIKAM, "never" NIKDY "anybody": KDOKOLI, "anything" COKOLI; "anywhere" KDEKOLI, "to anywhere" KAMKOLI, "any time" KDYKOLI "somebody": NJEKDO, KDOSI, "something" NJECO, COSI; "somewhere" NJEKDE, KDESI, "to somewhere" NJEKAM, KAMSI "sometimes" NJEKDY (NJE- is probably from NEVJEM "I dont know") ZDE and SEM (and "this day" DNES, "this year" LETOS) are remnants of the original demonstrative root S- meaning "this". The morpheme "see!" HLE! can be added: TENHLE (m.), TAHLE (f.), TOHLE (n.) "this" TENHLETEN (m.), TAHLETA (f.), TOHLETO (n.); "here" TUHLE, TADYHLE "to here" SEMHLE "that" TAMHLETEN (m.), TAMHLETA (f.), TAMHLETO (n.); "there": TAMHLE; "to there" TAMHLE Pavel