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Re: CHAT: relative tense

From:Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 23, 1999, 23:49
On Tue, 23 Mar 1999 07:38:30 +0000 "Raymond A. Brown"
<raybrown@...> writes:
>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. >
Weird....this is very similar to Rokbeigalmki, although Rokbeigalmki inserts between the 'subject-tense complex' and the root only positivity/negativity/possibility particles. azu-daelyeb = i brought <<< az (i) + u (past) + the root. In Rokbeigalmki the subject-tense complexes can be detached, like this: ha'ezu-daelyeb sha'thes-a? (did you bring the book?) azu:. (i did.) Does Swahili do this? -Stephen (Steg) "anxiety is the dizziness of freedom" ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]