Re: Passive and active....

> Barry Garcia <Barry_Garcia@...> wrote:
> > So, how do all of your languages handle active and passive voice,
> if at
> > all?
.

Rokbeigalmki has 4 voices:
simple / reflexive = root
causative = DA+root
passive = root+-AD
causative-passive = DA+root+-AD


For example:

MANOI = "eat"

aza-MANOI. = "i'm eating"
aza-MANOI sha'yagul. = "i'm eating a fish" (_sha'_ = object marker)

aza-DAMANOI. = "i'm feeding"
aza-DAMANOI sha'yagul wa'beijabal. = "i'm feeding a fish to a bear"

yagul-a uhza-MANOI-AD. = "the fish is being eaten"
yagul-a uhza-MANOI-AD ya'ash. = "the fish is being eaten by me"

yagul-a uhza-DAMANOI-AD. = "the fish is being fed (to something/one
else)"
yagul-a uhza-DAMANOI-AD ya'ash wa'beijabal. = "the fish is being fed by
me to a bear"

As you can see, since the causative form refers to the *food*, and not
the *eater* of the food, there is no way to say, as in English, "the bear
is being fed" to mean that it is the eater.  Rokbeigalmki's weak order
does allow you to stress the word _wa'beijabal-a_ ("to the bear") by
putting it at the beginning of the sentence.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "life isn't worth living if you're not being loved by a kid" ~ (toy
story 2)