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Re: Ng'and'ana grammar

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Friday, January 25, 2002, 18:08
Elliott Belser wrote:
>Subjunctive > Present 'e, Ben'e 'it may be' > Preiterate 'ev, Ben'ev 'it may have been' > Imperfect 'em, Ben'em 'it may always have been' > Future 'er, Ben'er 'it may be' and the command tense (you >don't know if they'll do it in the future...)
As a possibly amusing contrast, in Tairezazh you use the future indicative when giving an actual order to somebody. The underlying idea is that it is simply unthinkable that the person/people you're addressing will not obey. Tairezazh also have an imperative mood, but its use is considered inherently polite, and your using it implies that the person/people you address is/are under no obligation to obey. Almost always it's better translated to English by a construction with "please" rather than a bare imperative. Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com