Theory about the evolution of languages
| From: | Afian <yann_kiraly@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, August 18, 2004, 9:09 |
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I know some basic grammar about Latin and Hungarian and I speak German and
English (as mothe and father tongues) and today I thought of the following
idea:
Latin and Hungarian both have many cases (about 20 and 8), and they both
only have 3 tenses. English has 3 cases (I'm counting only cases whose
form is different from the form of other cases and I don't count differing
pronouns) as well as Frensh, and they both have relativley many tempora
(or aspects, if you will). Frensh: about 9 and English: about 5. German
has 4 cases and only four tenses. Now, here's the theory:
In Proto-IE, there where cases as well as prepositions. After a while the
cases started to decline and the tenses multiplied (latin:3 frensh:9, they
tripled). In Proto-Uralic there also where prepositions and cases, but
here the cases prevailed and multiplied. The tenses, in contrast declined
to a mere 3.
Now, this could be total nonsens and that is quite propable since I know
nothing about Proto-Uralic, and maybe the tense in/decrease has nothing to
to with the changes in the cases and prepositions. Please let me know your
standpoint.
Thanks in advance.
Yann
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