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Re: CHAT: Being taken for a furriner ...

From:Keith Gaughan <kmgaughan@...>
Date:Thursday, September 2, 2004, 12:43
David Barrow wrote:

> > Keith Gaughan wrote: > >> David Barrow wrote: >> >>> In the Spanish spoken in the jungle here in Peru a construction similar >>> to the first one above is often used. The standard would be for example: >>> >>> la tapa de la botella >>> the top of the bottle >>> >>> the colloquial would be >>> de la botella su tapa >>> of the bottle its top >> >> Isn't that essentially how the English genitive arose? >> >> K. >> > Hi Keith > > You replied to me rather than the group. I think people there might be > better qualified than I am to confirm your theory. English genitive > comes from the Germanic genitive which in turn comes from the > Indo-European genitive
I keep forgetting to change my list settings so that Thunderbird doesn't screw up the reply address. Replying to the list now. I think this was discussed back in the depths of the list's history. I think it's a coincidence that they have the same form, but I'm pretty sure the origin of -'s is from constructions like: the king his army and the like. It is, after all, a clitic. I think it generalised under some influence from the germanic genitive, but it's not actually the genitive. > How IE got it, I don't know Ah, that's lost in the depths of all those proto-languages we know nothing about unless you believe in Patrick Ryan's Proto-Language and Santa Clause... :-) K. -- Keith Gaughan -- talideon.com The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

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Joe <joe@...>