Prepositions from nouns (was Re: Possession and genitivity)

Hallo!

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:19:14 -0500,
Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:

> How do prepositions fit into this; in languages that have prepositions
> which govern the genitive case, are these prepositions generally derived
> from nouns?
I think it cannot be generalized, but they often are (i.e, `on X'
< `top of X') , and sometimes still behave like nouns.
(ObConlang:) In Old Albic, local prepositions such as `above', `below',
`behind' etc. are actually nouns that are inflected for case
(and as if it wasn't enough, the noun phrase governed by the preposition
shows suffixaufnahme):

(1) tharas     amaras        mbararas
    behind-LOC the:I-LOC-LOC house-LOC-LOC
    `behind the house'

(2) tharana    amarana       mbararana
    behind-ALL the:I-LOC-ALL house-LOC-ALL
    `to behind the house'

(3) tharada    amarada       mbararada
    behind-ABL the:I-LOC-ABL house-LOC-ALL
    `from behind the house'

Greetings,

Jörg.