Re: Prepositional phrases

Aidan Grey wrote:

>  Problem here is that it feels like it gets
>needlessly complex. Note the need for a different
>preposition in saying 'out of' or 'outside'. Through
>gets even weirder:
>
>   Through the forest: trea      mei    dauren
>                       thru-PERL in-OBL forest-GEN
>
>  I really like having locative nouns ('mi' really
>means 'the inside of', for example) but it seems
>really  needlessly complex. Does anyone know anything
>about natlangs that use locative nouns? Or have ideas
>about how to simplify my system?>
This last is comparable to Indonesian usage.  The two most common preps. are
di 'in, at' and ke 'to'.  These then combine with various locative words,
like: didalam 'inside', kedalam '(to/toward) the inside, into'; diatas 'on
top of, above', dibawah 'under, below'; kearah 'in the direction of,
toward'.

Kash works in much the same way, except the all purpose prep. _ri_ can mean
'to' (motion) with the dative case, 'at, in' (location) with the accusative.
It can also take nouns of location:  ri ciniye añange 'into the middle of
the forest' (cini+dat. 'middle', añange+nom.( unmarked) 'forest' vs. ri cini
añange 'in the middle of the forest' (cini unm.acc.,), and many others,
which sometimes get a little awkward.  'From' is _alo_, and takes the
genitive.

Something I "borrowed" from Christophe IIRC:  ri + personal name in genitive
means "at X's place/home', or ri + aran 'name'+gen + name. 'at X's
shop/place of business'.  Ri Shenjiyi 'at Shenji's place'; ri mami 'my
place'; ri arani nim surañ 'at the 5 Mountains shop (or bar, or whatever--
that would be clear from context).

>  Do you use just a simple preposition (or
>postposition) with cases marking motion or direction,
>like Latin? Or do you use some other system?
>