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Georgian Case (Was Re: Polysynthetic nouns)

From:David Peterson <thatbluecat@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 2, 2004, 19:06
Paul responded to me:

<<> d-is-a-s
> /sister-genitive-epenthetic vowel-dative/ > "to something belonging to one's sister"
The morpheme for "sister" is /d/?>> Why not? The morpheme for "to be" in Latin is /s/ (the /e/'s are epenthetic in "esse"). In the nominative, the Georgian word for sister is /da/. Whenever a case-ending that begins with a vowel is attached, though, that /a/ drops out. The full paradigm is: Nom.: da Acc./Dat.: das Gen.: dis Instr.: dit Erg.: dam Adverb.: dad Plural: Nom.: debi Acc./Dat.: debs Gen.: debis Instr.: debit Erg.: debma Adv.: debad I'm leaving out the vocative on purpose. Also, the ergative case is often called the "narrative" case (because it's only used in the past tense). -David ******************************************************************* "sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze." "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn." -Jim Morrison http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>