Focus in W (was Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals)

Fakaltináu:
> W would require a cleft for that, something like:
>
> Faklátassi nús Ján fakassáttas wifkál
> Was          John  read        book
> It was John who read the book
Incidentally, there's an error, "read" has to agree with the
*absolutive* argument (wifkál), not the ergative (nús Ján), thus it
should've taken the suffix -*a, not -tas, making it fakassátta

I've been thinking about this, and I've decided that the form tatti is
used to mark a focused noun.  This is derived from the verb form
tátassi, an inflected form of tá, which was a variant of klá.
Specifically, tátassi is 3rd person singular sentient non-punctual
(i.e., (s)he is), but was generalized for all nouns, regardless of
number or sentience or person.  Thus:

Tatti nús Ján fakassátta wifkál
Focus   John    read       book
John read the book; It's John who read the book

Tatti wifkál fakassátta núsal Jánal
Focus  book    read        John-erg
The book John read; The book is what John read.

It remains to be determined exactly what its usage is.

All particles must be mono- or disyllabic, and cannot bear stress, which
is why tátassi became tatti.

--
Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duos duonos
God gave teeth; God will give bread - Lithuanian proverb
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