Re: Grie Ka #1 (was Re: ,Language' in language name?)

{snipping everything]

> Anyway, here I have a question (actually two).
>  Even in a romance language like French, IIRC,
> inflection (declension, conjugation, etc.) is mainly carried out by changing the
> ending of the word, not the beginning of the word.
> Am I right? And if I'm right, I'm wondering why it is so. (Psycology?)
> Or would anyone on the list provide me the interesting examples of languages
>  where inflection is done by changing the begining of words?

TONS AND TONS of languages in fact.
A quick sampling:
-----
Zapothec (spoken in Mexico)

palu:  stick  > spalube: his stick
spalube is analyzed:  s-palu-be  Possession-Noun-his
------

Luiseno (spoken in Southern California)

ki: house  >  noki: my house
as apposed to > chamki: our house

-------
Quiche (spoken in Guatemala)
-sikix: to read > kingsikix: I read (present)
                > shingsikix: I read (past)
                > kasikix: You read (present)

------
Then of course there's Swahili, the more well known one:

-penda: to like > nitawapenda: I will like them
                > alikupenda: He liked you

-----
Finally Cree (spoken in Canada)
-kime: to count > akimew: he counts
                > nikimen: I count
                > kaakimew: he will count
                > nikaakimen: I will count

So..yeah, there's a bunch of languages that have prefixes as inflections...I don't see
what's so strange about it.

Elliott


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