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

On Fri, 19 Jan 2001, Pavel A. da Mek wrote:

> dirk elzinga wrote:
> >Shoshoni
> >has a highly articulated demonstrative system; here's how it
> >works.
> >
> >Demonstratives consist of two parts, a proximal prefix and a
> >demonstrative stem. Most prefixes come in pairs, one with an
> >initial s- and one without. The s- forms are more definite and
> >are used for previously mentioned referents. Each pair shows
> >relative distance--spatial, temporal as well as psychological.
> >Here are the prefixes with the demonstrative stem -tyn (/y/ is a
> >high central unrounded vowel):
> >
> >        si-, i- 'near' (sityn 'this')
> >        se-, e- 'not quite so near' (setyn 'this')
> >        sa-, a- 'far, but in sight' (satyn 'that')
> >        su-, u- 'not in sight, usually far' (sutyn 'that')
> >        ma- no distinction (matyn 'this, that')
>
>
> It is magnificent! The distance is proportional to the wave-length of the
> vowel!
Actually, inversely proportional to the frequency of the second
formant :-).

> I wonder why there is not:
> *so-, *o- 'not quite so far'.    :-)
In the dialect I work on (Gosiute) , su-, u- comes out sounding
like so-, o-. The vowel /o/ carries a small functional load in
the language and has a more restricted distribution than the
other vowels, so it is not surprising that there is no pair of
prefixes *so-, *o- which contrasts with su-, u-.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga                          dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu

"The strong craving for a simple formula
has been the undoing of linguists."               - Edward Sapir