Re: questions about Arabic
| From: | Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, March 20, 2001, 18:35 |
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On Tue, Mar 20, 2001 at 11:49:57AM +0100, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
[actually on a previous occasion]
> > <<Well, Arabic still underwent some changes due to phonological changes.
> > For
> > instance, semivowels in verbs often disappeared in the past tense (like
> > verb
> > *kawana: to be, pronounced /kawana/, then /kO:na/, and finally kâna
> > /ka:na/,
> > while present stayed yakwanu /jakwanu/ IIRC) bringing a whole class of
> > irregular
> > verbs called "sick" in Arabic>>
But I think */kawana/ had already lost the /w/ by the time of the Qur'an, or
else it would be written with a waw.
> This
> looks quite correct knowing that the main meanings of the derived form n°2 is
> intensification or repetition of the action, or factitive ("to compose" looks
> quite correct as factitive of "to be", doesn't it?).
Quick question: What's the difference between factitive and causative?
--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo
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