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Re: Language uploaded, finally...

From:daniel andreasson <daniel.andreasson@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 1, 2000, 12:44
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 -- <> QHEIL RYNENYA ALANDEA <> daniel.andreasson@telia.com <> <> RINYA LAWEA <> Daniel Andreasson <>