Re: Numerals Re: Re: Agglutinating -> inflecting

Quoting John Cowan <cowan@...>:

> Henrik Theiling scripsit:
> > Hi!
> >
> > Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> writes:
> > > In my 'lect, _mannar_ is the pl of _man_ when it means something
> > > like "underling". An officer's soldiers are his _mannar_,
> f'rinstance. It
> > > would sound strange, to my ears, to use it as a vocative.
> > >
> > > I think German _Mannen_ has a similar distribution. Native
> Germanophones?
> >
> > Yes, exactly, I think.
>
> And how does an officer get the attention of his men when he wants ot
> address them in a group, if this can't be used as a vocative?  In
> English,
> the natural expression is "Men!".
Someone having done military service might answer better, but I believe he'd
say _Soldater!_ "Soldiers!".

                                                             Andreas

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