Re: Noun to Verb

Hi,
<skipping some pretty interesting stuff>
> Anybody got any additional ideas for "basic" derivation of verbs from
> nouns?
In Tolwd (my language), there's a semi-regular rule that roots with
fricatives are generally verbal, while corresponding stops denote nouns.

Examples are the verb 'thollwdhnai' "to speak" [TolluDnai] (-nai is the
infinitive/verbal noun suffix) vs 'tollwd' "speech", or the verbal base dh-
"to be" and the pretty philosophical word 'phed' (ph- is a particle used by
speakers of Tolwd to make the word more "dignant", as one might say),
something like "that which is temporarily in the process of being", a bit
like German 'das Seinende'

I imagined it as if in the ancestor language (I've not thought about it, so
don't ask) the rule was pretty regular to derive active participles, which
later came to substitute the actual verbs, and later obtained the verbal
inflexions.

By the way, misuse of the rule is a joke among the speakers. A classic work
of Tolwd grammar is called 'Tollwdnai galin a mwlchön' (Princples of true
speaking), which is all but oudated some three centuries. However, it is
still mostly used for learning Tolwd in several neighboring countries, and
it states that the rule is regular. Thus, a shibboleth, you might say, is
the usage of words like "to baby" by foreigners (which would be *habhannai
from gaban "baby")

Bye,
Pavel