Re: Passive and active....

The Gray Wizard wrote:
> The more important grammatical voice in amman iar is the antipassive which
> not only serves to give topical prominence to the agent while rendering the
> patient either unexpressed or obliquely referenced, but is often required to
> meet the ergative constraints on coordination and subordination,
That's the same way that Watakassi' does.  W. also has three other
voices: reflexive, reciprocative, and one I call "Dative-Object", which
turns the dative into an absolutive, and the absolutive (if stated) is
made into an instrumental.  This is common in verbs like "fear" which
must take dative for the subject, however, if the one fearing is a
pronoun, dative-object is common (almost required), e.g:

Pakita'uv tikista'li tyi'uli
Pa-kita'-u-v  ti-kista'-li t-yi'u-li
DO-fear-I-hab G1-girl-INST G2-that-INST
I am afraid of that girl

As opposed to the far less common:

Kita'tasva tikista' tyi'u ta'lkwaz
Kita'-tas-va      ti-kista' t-yi'u  ta'lkwa-z
fear-3SRatAbs-Hab G1-girl   G1-that I-dat
I am afraid of that girl

This is also used if the object given is unknown or unimportant, e.g.:

Paflabi'tas ku naJa'n wifka'lli
Pa-f-labi'-tas        ku    na-Ja'n w-ifka'l-li
DO-past-give-3SRatAbs I.nom G2-John G6-book-INST
I gave the book to John

Otherwise it would've been:

Flabi'l ku naJa'naz wifka'l
F-labi'-l          ku    na-Ja'n-az  w-ifka'l
Past-give-3SIrrAbs I.nom G2-John-Dat G6-book
I gave the book to John

The first is preferred, as "book" is inanimate, and not an especially
preferred word for absolutive (much as we tend to say "John was hit by a
bus" rather than "A bus hit John")

(Note: ku is a pronominal clitic, pronounced as part of the previous
word, but written seperately, it always follows the verb phrase,
following any adverbs that may come after it; it's also homophonous with
"ku" = and, except that "and" is always low pitch, while "ku" = I is
usually high-pitch)

Today is
6 Watikala'f Wakabi'f 272
809, September 9