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Re: Edible and Drinkable Pronouns?

From:Jeff Rollin <jeff.rollin@...>
Date:Monday, July 2, 2007, 21:15
In the last episode, (On Saturday 12 May 2007 08:52:33), you wrote:
> I haven't found that reference I've been looking for yet, but I > rediscovered my Fijian grammar, and came across an interesting > section. Apparently there are four varieties of possessive > pronouns: > > (1) Neutral > (2) Edible > (3) Drinkable > (4) Familiar > > Neutral and familiar are rather commonplace (the first being an > "everything else" category, and the latter being for body parts, > or family members), but the other two are used exclusively with > things that are edible and potable. Here are some examples: > > (1) na noNgu waNga > /ART neut.1sg.pos. canoe/ > "my canoe" > > (2) na Ngau ika > /ART edi.1sg.pos. fish/ > "my fish" > > (3) na meNgu jaNgona > /ART pot.1sg.pos. kava/ > "my kava" > > (4) na ulu-Ngu > /ART head-fam.1sg.pos./ > "my head" > > And then you can use different ones to imply different things: > > na noNgu jaNgona "my kava (which I grow or sell)" > na meNgu jaNgona "my kava (which I drink" > > Those are the only four there are. I wouldn't've expected to see > "edible" and "drinkable" as two major divisions of a four-part > possessive system, so I thought I'd share. :) >
Just caught up on this. Looks like body-part nouns are inalienable and take a suffix? Jeff -- "Please understand that there are small European principalities devoted to debating Tcl vs. Perl as a tourist attraction." -- Cameron Laird

Replies

David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>
ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...>