Re: R: Re: Greenberg's universals

I wrote:

>> > What I stated was a
>> > generalization that was given to me in a typology course.  I have very
>> > little exprience with VSO languages, and the one's I have looked at
do, in
>> > fact, lack definite articles: Eyak, Haida, Tlingit, and I can't recall
>> > seeing a definite article in any Athabaskan languages either.
>
>Oops.  Haida and Tlingit are in fact SOV.  That's what I get for making a
>claim based off of a study of verbal morphology rather than syntax in
>general.
>
>So much for my evidence.
>
>> Kwakwala (a.k.a. Kwakiutl), a Wakashan language spoken in the same general
area as Haida
>> and Tlingit, is verb-initial *with* articles, as are the nearby Salishan
languages.  The
>> only Athapaskan language I know anything about is Navajo, which is SOV.
Which ones did
>> you have in mind?
>
>Ahtna and Koyukon are OSV, and neither have definite articles. Maybe some
>other Northern Athabaskan langs are as well, though Slave is certainly
>SOV, as are all the southern ones.
This is where I make clear that the above comments apply to this last
paragraph
as well.

And this is where I sheepishly acknowledge my mistake: in looking at my
handout
with this info, I drifted onto the wrong page, so what I read as saying SVO
has
a greater tendancy to have definite articles really applied to VSO languages.
I had to recheck -- I couldn't believe Matt was wrong on this, not with the
examples he had and my lack of any.

Personal note: Matt, are you going to be on campus anytime soon?  I've never
spoken to another conlanger face to face, and would like the opportunity.






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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
  -- Kenneth Hale
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