Re: CHAT: relative tense

At 9:04 pm -0300 22/3/99, FFlores wrote:
>Boudewijn Rempt <brt@...> wrote:
......
>> agreement systems. Does anyone know of a conlang that has object agreement
>> incorporated into the verb?
>>
>
>It depends on what you mean by incorporated.
Presumably as an affix (either prefix, infix or suffix).

I can't think off hand of any conlang that does this, but I'd be very
surprised if there were none.

>
>As for natlangs, Basque does something like that too --
>but I don't know to what extent.
The Bantu languages regularly do this - it comes after the subject and
tense-sign prefixes and before the word stem.  However, the object affix is
not required if the object is a noun but is used if it desired to emphasize
the noun.  For example, in Swahili

Nilikisoma = I read /rEd/ it (i.e. the book) <-- ni [I] + li[past] + ki [it]

Umeleta kitabu?  Have you brought a book?
Umekileta kitabu?  Have you brought _the_ book [I wanted]?

Ray.