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Re: Set of basic adpositions

From:R A Brown <ray@...>
Date:Monday, November 10, 2008, 11:14
Ph.D. wrote:
> R A Brown wrote: >> David J. Peterson wrote: >>> Tok Pisin has two: bilong (genitive), and long (all else). >> >> Presumably the meaning is made clearer, if necessary, with additional >> words such as adverbs. > > Tzotzil, a Mayan language of Central America, only has one preposition > "ta". It can often be used by itself when a more precise meaning is not > needed: > > (All my examples are from http://www.zapata.org/Tzotzil/ )
[snip] Thanks for the pointer. I've had a quick look, and it seems very interesting. I must look further. I notice Tzotzil expresses the genitive (possessive) without using an adposition (as, of course, do many languages), so I guess "ta" will the one preposition similar to Tok Pisin's "long." My original question was prompted by work I've been doing recently on Piashi (aka BrSc, aka 'briefscript') where I want just a small set of basic adpositions. One, I guess, is as small a it gets :) -- Ray ================================== http://www.carolandray.plus.com ================================== Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora. [William of Ockham]

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Paul Bennett <paul.w.bennett@...>