On Sat, 4 Jan 2003 15:24:02 -0600 Patrick Dunn <pdunn@...>
writes:
> Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
> > I would be eager to see some grammar of the language. Is there
> > something
> > online, and if not, would you care to post something?
> A noun may be pluralized by preceding it with the particle ja (from
> ea, "they").
> gladjo -- a sword, the sword
> ja gladjo -- swords, the swords
> ja contracts with enclitic prepositions:
> d'ja gladjo -- of swords
> When context makes plurality clear, "ja" is optional and usually
> omitted.
-
I like this!
> tu da -- you give
> ata da -- you (formal) give
-
Why is the Latin "you" informal, and the Hebrew "you" formal?
> aten da -- you pl formal give
> hen da -- they give
-
Masculine Hebrew pronouns (ata, hu) for singular and feminine Hebrew
pronouns (aten, hen) for plural... for variety, or is there a deeper
meaning behind the choice? :-)
> Verbs can be made passive by preceding the tense marker (if there is
> one) with the particle mi.
> hu mi da -- it is given
-
Where does this |mi| come from?
> The agent of a passive sentence is indicated with the enclitic
> preposition "be."
> The indirect object, as usual, can be indicated with the enclitic
> preposition "le."
> libro mi habjo da l'amiko b'ani. -- the book was given to [my]
> friend by me.
-
Innovative use of the Hebrew |b-|! In Hebrew it's used instrumentally
(akeh otkha behharbi "i'll hit you with my sword"), but for agents of
passive sentences it uses |`al-yedey| "by the hands of".
> hu lo habjo da nunkam t'ani libro! "He didn't give me the book."
-
should that be |l'ani|, or did i miss something?
> The relativizer is "asc."
-
From Hebrew |asher|?
> The question word is "ke." It means both "what" and "who," and is
> prefixed to
> other words to make "where," "when," "why," and "how":
> ke-loko -- where?
> ke-tempo -- when?
> per-ke -- why?
> ke-modo -- how?
> ke-kanto -- how much? how many?
-
Is "ke" from Latin? (so "per-ke" = Spanish "por qué"?)
-Stephen (Steg)
"aru."