Re: French and German (jara: An introduction)

Hi!

Christian Thalmann <cinga@...> writes:
> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Henrik Theiling <theiling@A...> wrote:
...
>  >      manch   schnell-er Hund
>  >      none    strong
>  >      some    fast       dog
>
> This construction of "manch" strikes me as extremely archaic.
Well, hmm, it does not really sound outdated to me, but maybe poetic.
Not colloquial at the least.

> Does anyone still use it?  To me, it seems that most people
> say "manch ein schneller Hund" or "mancher schnelle Hund"
> nowadays.
I use the latter most often of the three posibilities.

(Would be funny of 'der' could be used without endings:

   d roter Hund
   d rotes Auto

:-)

Maybe a conlang project...)

> Also, "some" doesn't feel like a good translation of "manch".
> I'd render "manch ein schneller Hund" as "many a quick dog".
> (That works in English, doesn't it?)
Hmm.  I don't think it works like that.  'Many'?  Hmm.  'some' is also
a bit, well, strange, but I would'n know what else to use.  Maybe
'There are dogs that...' would be best?

With 'solch' it's easier to translate.

> prepositionesque adjectives (e.g. "mit vollem Mund", "in
> kurzer Zeit", "bar jeder Vernunft"),
Yes, that is a better way to demonstrate it.  I'll use that in the
future. :-)

(Another way would be to use uncountable things that can be used
without any determiner, like 'Milch'(f), 'Tee'(m), 'Wasser'(n).)

**Henrik

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