Re: Verb-initial languages

On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 06:39:17 -0500 John Cowan <cowan@...>
writes:
> Joe scripsit:
> > In Irish,  |tá| is the copula, and it goes first.
> My understanding is that the Irish copula is "is", and that "tá"
> rather asserts predication.
> --
> John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> cowan@ccil.org
-

I'm not sure what "predication" means, but my Irish teacher said that the
difference between |is| and |tá| is analogous to (although not exactly
the same as) the difference in Spanish between |ser| and |estar|.

if i can remember correctly (no textbook or dictionary with me at the
moment):

Is fear é.  = "he is a man"
Tá bean ag an doras.  = "a woman is at the door."


-Stephen (Steg)
 "arrrru"

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