Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Name Prefixes

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Tuesday, September 19, 2000, 0:28
On Mon, Sep 18, 2000 at 06:21:15PM -0400, Nik Taylor wrote:
> In Watakassí, names must be preceded by an element called a Name Prefix, > which is used to indicate that the following word is a name, they are > used for both proper names, and names of kinds. Cases go on both the > prefix and the name. The prefixes are (the numbers in parenthesis are > gender numbers):
[snip] Very interesting! In both Mandarin and Malay, there are "articles" (that's what Malay grammar books call them) that behave somewhat similarly to your prefixes. For example, in Mandarin: 1) i1 bu4 che1 one <article> car --> "a car" 2) liang3 pi1 ma3 two <article> horses --> "two horses" 3) i1 zhe1 kou3 one <article> dog --> "a dog" These articles can be used in both definite and indefinite contexts: (1) above is indefinite, "a car"; if it's changed to "na4 bu4 che1" it becomes "that car". Now in Malay: 1) sebatang pokok <article> tree/branch --> "one* tree" or "a tree" (* "sebatang" = se- (unit prefix) + batang (actual article) 2) sebuah rumah <article> house --> "one house" or "a house" 3) seekor kancil <article> mousedeer --> "a mousedeer" What's interesting is that some of the "articles" actually have a root meaning: batang = stick, or something long; ekor = tail (so "seekor kancil" is literally "one tail of mousedeer"!) T