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Re: French transitivity etc.

From:Etak <tarnagona@...>
Date:Friday, January 30, 2004, 2:59
Hello!
   When I was doing French in highschool, my teacher
taught us that all of the French intransitives fit
into the acronym "Mrs. Vandertramp".  They were:
M - monter
R - rester
S - sortier
V - venir
A - arriver
N - naitre (i circumflex)
D - descendre
E - entre
R - returner
T - tomber
R - rentre
A - aller
M - mourir
P - partir
   This struck me as a very small list when I first
learned it.  I am curious.  Does anyone know of any
other intransitives or does this list cover them all?
(Intransitives are verbs that don't take a direct
object, right?  That's what I learned, but I've since
become much confused with all the talk of
ditransitives and such.  I thought all verbs could
take a direct and indirect object except the
intransitive ones...so now I'm not so sure of even
them anymore.  Can someone please explain all this
transitivity, and multi-transitivity?)
   Anyway, I hope this list helps Trebor and other
interested persons. :)
---Etak
P.S.  In a fit of creativity (aided by alot of
snow...I didn't go to college for a day) I've
completed a goodly portion of my conlang's grammar.
My conlang is called Tarnese (as it is spoken on the
fictious Isle of Tarn) or Tar/ner|da\zh as the natives
would say (literally, home-lang).  [/] represents a
rising tone.  [\] represents a falling tone.  [|]
represents a level tone.  The Rs are not pronounced
but they change the vowels (like British
English...dialects that don't pronounce Rs) which is
why I put the tone marks after them.  Can anyone tell
me a better way to write the tones?  They break up the
word in funny ways using the system I have now.  I
also don't know what the IPA is exactly.  I have very
little idea of which vowels are which on the chart,
although one of these days I'm going to have a careful
listen to one of the websites that has the symbols and
their sounds.
   One last question...my conlang doesn't have an h
but in the Romanization I have th, dh, sh, and zh for
T, D, S, and Z (I think I've got the IPA right).  Does
this use of h seem kind of odd because the soud itself
doesn't exist in my conlang?  Can anyone sugest a
better way of writing the digraphs?
---Etak (again :))

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Replies

Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>