Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: CHAT: relative tense

From:FFlores <fflores@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 23, 1999, 22:56
Raymond A. Brown <raybrown@...> wrote;
[snip]
> 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]? >
That _kitabu_ "book" is a Semitic loan, isn't it? Or does the first syllable ki- have anything to do with the _ki_ for object "it"? I'm sure I've heard of languages which mark nouns this way (not that this is one of them, but maybe...) though that's a bit too much marking. --Pablo Flores * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Alexander Graham Bell's Observation: When a body is immersed in water, the phone rings.