Re: Language uploaded, finally...

Andrew Chaney wrote:

> I have finally gotten around to uploading the latest
> version of Ihro to my website.
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~gllaurents/ihro.html
I'm a bit curious about your 2p inanimate pronouns.

          Nominative   Object-possessive
Singular     twi             te
Plural        na             nu

When do you use them? I can't come up with any
situations where I would need to address something
inanimate with "you".

So, how do you define animate and inanimate, and in
what situations do you use twi, te, na and nu? If
animals are included in "inanimate" I can understand.

If they are rarely used, it seems such a shame to use
the beautiful words "na" and "nu" for those rare occasions.

And a question from the syntax part:

I'm a bit confused regarding this:

"The nominative case is used as the subject and direct
object of transitive and intransitive sentences. The
object-possessive is used as the object of prepositions
and as a modifier to show possession."

Does this mean that:

1. Subject and object of transitives are marked with NOM
   and subject of intransitives too. That is, there is
   no distinction at all between them. (This seems to be
   the case judging from your example below.) The OBJ-POSS
   is only used for objects of prepositions and possession.

2. That NOM is used as subject of intrans. and object of
   trans. which would make it an ergative language.

Your explanation is a bit fuzzy. Though I guess my first
guess is the right one.

Fa    anaa    ta   cai    fa    eio       uto eio       eto
I.NOM man.NOM that he.NOM I.NOM past.verb hit past.verb see
'I saw the man who hit me.'

Judging from this, my guess is that my first alternative is
the correct one. Is it?

If this is it, you could call the OBJ-POSS case something
like "prepositional-possessive". Including the word "objective"
makes one think it marks objects of transitives. At leaste
that's what I thought.

It is a bit unusual to have a marker for all NPs in subject
and object position when there is no distinction between them,
though not unlikely I guess.

daniel

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<> QHEIL RYNENYA ALANDEA <> daniel.andreasson@telia.com <>
<>           RINYA LAWEA <> Daniel Andreasson           <>