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Re: How to do "But/However"

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Sunday, March 12, 2006, 18:02
Chris Bates wrote:

> I can give at least one alternative way of handling but from some Papuan > languages, ....Basically, in these languages each > verb is marked for its relationship to the next verb in the chain: > whether the verbs share a subject, whether there is temporal overlap or > succession, and so on. Well, in some verb chaining Papuan languages > there's an affix on some verbs that does a similar job to "but" in > English: > > ko-nejapowo'nIngk-ahonIngk-i nakwo jomo mujo'njo > ANTI-always gives us-SEQ-3SG(DS) we ask not speak to him > "He always gives us but we don't pray to him" > > Syoho yakumpohn'nyo ko-imalog-o-so hamnoyoho engo muyofoho > work strong ANTI-do-they-and money much not give > "They worked hard but not much money was given to them" > > The ko- on the first verb marks that there's some form of frustration or > expectancy reversal between that verb and the following verb. The > interesting thing here I guess is that ko- is marked by a prefix on the > verb before where the "but" would be in English...
It strikes me that ko- in these exs. might equally well be translated as "although/even though...", in which case it's right where it ought to be :-) "Although he always gives us, we don't pray to him" "Although they worked hard, not much money... etc..." Only non-IE lang. of my acquaintance, Indonesian, uses its "but" conjunction "(te)tapi" pretty much a la IE. The odd thing is, "tetapi" __IIRC__ is borrowed from Skt. (tathapi vel sim.)-- and I think also "or" atau (sometimes spelled-- archaic?-- atawa). "But, although, nevertheless, however" etc. all gave me pause in Kash, too, and(but?) I think I ended up with the conventional IE usages. Now that Gwr is under development, this may be an opportunity to do something a little weirder there............:-)

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Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>