Re: question about classifiers

On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Fabian wrote:

> > My question is, therefore, if I'm going to have these fifty or so pronouns
> > but no nouns, how did these pronouns evolve?
>
> Perhaps the ancient language originally had a very limited number of nouns,
> and these wore down into pronouns. For example, Japanese pronouns ALL
> originated as nouns (boku, I, meant manservant. watashi, I, meant private).
> These original nouns had very wide definitions. So, just as the arabic kitba
> could theoreticaly refer to any written thing in existance, the original
> nouns would have similar wide meaning. Your aliens would no doubt think of
> these words as nouns, but from a human perspective, they would be pronouns.
Hmm, so Advena could have worked the other way.  Makes sense.

> Actually, apart from the personal pronouns, wouldnt they be de facto nouns?
> In order to be a pronoun, doesnt it have to abstract a genuine noun?
I was waiting for that.  :)  Yes, I suppose they're not *technically*
pronouns -- just very, very, very general nouns.

>
> ---
> Fabian
> Ikun li dik il-kitba tpatti it-tieba ta' qalb ta' patruni tieghi.
> Ikun li ttaffi ugigh tal-Mitlufin u tal-Indannati.
> Ikun li ilkoll li jaqraw il-kitba, qalbhom ihobbu is-Sewwa u l-Unur.
> U b'dak l'ghamil, nithallas tax-xoghol iebes.
>